Multiscale modelling of wildfires impacts on the atmospheric dynamics and chemistry in the Mediterranean region

The Mediterranean region shows a marked vulnerability to wildfires that are a rising threat to natural ecosystems and population. A coupled modelling approach allows to explore chemical and dynamical interactions between fire and atmosphere that occur at different spatial and temporal scales. The numerical coupling between the atmospheric model Meso-NH, including a chemical reactive scheme, and the fire spread model ForeFire was the methodology applied to address three studies. Firtsly, wildfire impacts on the atmospheric dynamics and chemistry were investigated at regional scale by modelling the Lançon-de-Provence 2005 wildfire. This study shows the impact of pyrogenic emissions on pollutant concentrations spreading at the surface over 30 km downwind of the fire; the atmospheric turbulence triggered by the fire is also shown. Secondly, a study about wildfire injection height was carried out to compare two parametrisations that describe convective processes associated with wildfires. The two schemes (EDMF and PRM) give similar results once applied to a Mediterranean fire, whereas EDMF systematically underestimates fire injection heights of tropical fires whatever environnemental conditions are. Hence, this work highlights the limits of parametrisations that predict fire injection heights. Finally, MesoNH-ForeFire was applied at high resolution to simulate idealized case studies and large real wildfires. This work shows the improvement in terms of the fire rate of spread that results from the two-way fire-atmosphere coupling.