Battling the Blaze: High-Performance Computing to Model, Simulate, and Mitigate Wildfire Risk

Why It Matters Now

In June 2023, more than 100 million Americans were under Air Quality Index Alerts due to smoke drift from historic wildfire activity throughout Canada, which is facing one of its worst wildfire seasons on record. Atmospheric aerosols in wildfire smoke and air pollution cause respiratory, cardiovascular, and neurological diseases that result in an estimated 4.2 million deaths each year worldwide.

The Bipartisan Infrastructure Law and the Inflation Reduction Act included over $7 billion in funding to enhance our ability to mitigate and respond to wildfires. These resources will help over 100 at-risk communities in 22 states and seven Tribes develop and implement plans to protect themselves from wildfires.

High-Performance Computing (HPC) is a critical resource for data assimilation and numerical weather prediction research.

In partnership with the ACT-IAC, I am moderating an educational session on using HPC infrastructure to model, simulate, and mitigate the environmental impact of wildfires. Since announcing the event, I have received significant feedback, i.e., emails and notes from friends and colleagues expressing interest and points-of-view. It would be great to hear from more of you!

Stuff You Will Learn

• How the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s (NOAA) Global Systems Laboratory leverages High Performance computing to advance research that improves forecasts of wildfire smoke and other pollutants.?
• How wildfires, weather, and climate impact the impact of wildfire activity.
• How fire emissions, trace gases, smoke, and aerosols develop and produce hazardous air quality conditions.
• How forecasters, emergency managers, and other users can best communicate fire information to the public.

Who Will Be Teaching Us

We’ve gathered a powerhouse panel to educate, inform, and enlighten us on HPC and wildfire mitigation.

• Robert Sears is the Director of N-Wave, the NOAA Enterprise Network program. Robert also serves as the Chair of the Federal IPv6 Task Force and the Federal Network Representative Co-Chair for the Cloud and Infrastructure Community of Practice (C&I CoP).
• Jennifer Mahoney, the Director of the NOAA GSL. Jennifer leads a staff of nearly 200 meteorologists, software engineers, and support staff dedicated to “making forecasts better.”
• Ian Lee is the HPC Security Architect and Security Operations Team Lead in the Livermore Computing Division at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory.?

The conversation is set for Thursday, August 24th at 11AM EDT. Register now and help us spread the word. If you can’t attend, be sure to register and receive an On-Demand link.

Pete Tseronis?is the Founder and CEO of?Dots and Bridges LLC,?a Villanova University alum, a Forbes Business Council advisor, and Bourbon Steward.

#wildfires #highperformancecomputing #risk #climatechange