Atmospheric Turbulence Processes and Wildland Fires

Dear Colleagues,

Accurately predicting wildland fire behavior and the dispersion of smoke from wildland fires are two important issues that confront fire- and air-quality managers in their efforts to minimize the potential adverse impacts of wildland fires. Previous studies have shown that ambient and fire-induced atmospheric turbulent circulations can influence how fires spread across the landscape and how smoke from these fires is dispersed locally and regionally.  However, much is still unknown about the properties of turbulence regimes in wildland fire environments, and this lack of understanding has limited our ability to develop new and improved fire behavior and smoke dispersion prediction systems that more accurately account for atmospheric turbulence processes.

The purpose of this Special Issue is to highlight recent research on atmospheric turbulence regimes and processes in wildland fire environments through theoretical investigations, field measurements, and/or numerical modeling. Manuscripts addressing any aspect of atmospheric turbulence as it relates to wildland fires are welcome, including but not limited to the following:

• The effects of complex terrain and forest vegetation on fire-induced turbulence;
• Turbulence effects on smoke-plume dynamics;
• Correlations of fire behavior with the spatial and temporal variability of turbulence in the fire environment;
• Recent advances in turbulence parameterizations for operational fire behavior and smoke dispersion systems;
• Turbulent heat and momentum flux variability in the fire environment;
• Case studies of past wildland fire events using coupled atmosphere/fire-behavior modeling systems;
• Turbulence impacts on ember transport and deposition.

Dr. Warren E. Heilman
Guest Editor

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 250 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for assessment.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-anonymized peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Atmosphere is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2400 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.