Dr. Christine Wiedinmyer - Feb. 21

Name:  Dr. Christine Wiedinmyer

Title: Fires and Their Impacts: From Household Burning to Wildfires

Location: NWC 1313

Date:     2020/02/21

Time:     9:00 AM

Series:   National Weather Center Colloquia

ABSTRACT: Fires, including wildfires, prescribed burns, agricultural burning, or residential biomass burning, emit substantial amounts of particles, reactive trace gases, and longer lived species to the atmosphere. These emissions and the products from downwind chemical processing degrade air quality, impact climate, and can contribute to negative human health outcomes. There are many existing efforts to quantify emissions from biomass burning. These efforts take advantage of laboratory and field measurements, remote sensing observations, and various modeling tools. The Fire Inventory from NCAR (FINN) is one model that predicts fire emissions today and in the recent past. FINN emission estimates are used to assess the importance of biomass burning emissions relative to other sources, and, in conjunction with chemical and climate models, to evaluate their impacts, from influencing weather-related processes, degrading air quality, and altering the climate system. Despite great advances in the ability to identify and quantify emissions from biomass burning, the techniques used to predict emissions and understand their fate and transport in the atmosphere remain uncertain. For this presentation, I will give an overview of my past and current biomass burning research, from open fires to the use of biomass burning for heating and cooking purposes, highlighting new advances in our ability to predict biomass burning emissions and their impacts, and suggesting ways to improve our efforts in the future.

BIOGRAPHY:  Christine Wiedinmyer is the Associate Director for Science at CIRES, overseeing the science portfolio of CU Boulder’s largest research institute with a focus on managing research in service to NOAA, our primary partner.

Her own research has focused on the emissions of trace gases and particles to the atmosphere and how these emissions impact atmospheric composition, air quality, and climate. She also investigates the effects of global change on these processes, such as how land cover and land use change alter the fluxes of trace gases to the atmosphere.