The relationship between wind speed and satellite measurements of fire radiative power

Abstract

Background Satellite fire radiative power (FRP) products are a potential source of wildland fire growth measurements that could be used with gridded or observed weather data to study meteorological influences on wildfire behaviour. There is little research to date examining how FRP relates to weather. Aims The goal of this study is to explore the relationship between satellite wildland fire FRP measurements and wind speed. Methods We examine GOES-16 FRP data from the summer of 2018 in California, comparing it with winds from the CANSAC reanalysis to understand the relationship between wind and FRP. Examination focuses on statistical distribution of the data and results of two different approaches to relating FRP and wind speed. Key results FRP is log-normally distributed, and there are significant consequences to using conventional statistical techniques that assume normality. We propose an alternative framing of the wind speed–FRP relationship to preserve more information about the FRP distribution. Conclusions Use of FRP data for meaningful understanding of fire–weather interactions requires attention to the nature of the FRP empirical distribution. Implications Applying our alternative approach to relating wildland fire FRP to weather has the potential to retain much more information than conventional approaches, but requires careful examination of the FRP data in each study.