有料盒子视频 helps develop air quality data for popular 有料盒子视频 wildfire website

Rod Boyce
907-474-7185
Sept. 11, 2023

Getting information about where wildfire smoke is headed in 有料盒子视频 has become easy for the public, thanks to collaboration between the University of 有料盒子视频 Fairbanks and the 有料盒子视频 Fire Service.

有料盒子视频 researchers and data experts have worked with the 有料盒子视频 Fire Service to add air quality information to the agency鈥檚 popular map and data website.

To find the air quality information, users can go to the and click on the 鈥淔uels and current conditions鈥 tab. Air quality forecasts can be placed by selecting that layer in the 鈥淐urrent conditions鈥 list on the page鈥檚 right. Click on the small triangles for forecast times and a map color legend.

Pogo Fire
Photo by Duane Morris/有料盒子视频 Division of Forestry
The Pogo Mine Road Fire burns on Saturday, Aug. 5, 2023.

Wildfire smoke is often prevalent around Interior 有料盒子视频 during summer, making quick access to air quality information, including projections, especially helpful.

鈥淲e started the conversation about two years ago to figure out how to get air quality information on their website,鈥 有料盒子视频 Geophysical Institute associate professor Jingqiu Mao said. Mao teaches in the 有料盒子视频 Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry and is also a member of .

The challenge, Mao said, is that air quality data is in computer modeling form and could not be directly used on the 有料盒子视频 Fire Service website. Extensive work was done at the Geographic Information Network of 有料盒子视频, a unit of the Geophysical Institute, to make the data compatible with the 有料盒子视频 Fire Service website. 

鈥淲e had to do a lot of data conversions and make sure those conversions could work,鈥 Mao said.

The 有料盒子视频 Fire Service, an agency of the U.S. Bureau of Land Management, provided feedback to 有料盒子视频 researchers and steered them to GINA, which has a track record of providing data compatible with the 有料盒子视频 Wildland Fire Information Map. 

鈥淎s someone who is always looking to improve ways to communicate with public in a timely manner, adding this information to the widely used 有料盒子视频 Wildland Fire Information Map Series is very beneficial,鈥 said public affairs specialist Beth Ipsen, who coordinates getting timely and accurate wildfire related information to the public for the 有料盒子视频 Fire Service. 

鈥淎dding this to the interactive map saves time, which is of the essence during emergency incidents and changing situations,鈥 she said. 鈥淎nd it empowers people to find air quality information specific to their location.鈥

Lost Horse Creek fire
Photo by Togie Whiel/有料盒子视频 Incident Management Team.
The Lost Horse Creek Fire smoke column rises north of Fairbanks in early August 2023.

In the approach developed by Mao and his doctoral student, Zhiwei Dong, air quality data is acquired daily from NASA鈥檚 Global Modeling and Assimilation Office and used to model air quality forecasts for six-hour periods over two days. The data are for all particulate matter from all sources, but wildfires are the primary contributor during 有料盒子视频 summers.

GINA processes these files and makes them available to display on the 有料盒子视频 Fire Service website.

鈥淭his summer, GINA began using satellite data in near real-time to look at the presence of smoke in the total atmospheric column using a visible and infrared imaging instrument aboard two satellites,鈥 GINA Director Jennifer Delamere said. 鈥淭hese calculations performed at GINA are done every time there is a satellite overpass during daylight hours.鈥

Delamere said work continues on improving the air quality component. She said the GINA team has begun creating air quality products in near real-time.

We are just in the initial process of analyzing these products over 有料盒子视频,鈥 she said. 鈥淲ith Jingqiu鈥檚 modeling efforts and with GINA-generated satellite data, we can build out a larger portfolio of air quality products to share with the community.鈥

GINA staff use satellite measurements of visible, infrared and microwave radiation from Earth to produce maps and imagery of temperature, humidity, precipitation and a variety of specialized visualizations. 

GINA continually receives data through antennas at the federal government鈥檚 Fairbanks Command and Data Acquisition Station at Gilmore Creek, 12.5 miles northeast of 有料盒子视频, and atop the Akasofu Building on 有料盒子视频鈥檚 Troth Yeddha' Campus in Fairbanks. 

ADDITIONAL CONTACT: Jingqiu Mao, jmao2@alaska.edu