Electrified fallout from a wildfire plume
Joshua M\'endez Harper, Josef Dufek, Larry Hartman

TL;DR
This study investigates the electrification of wildfire plumes, revealing low charge densities on ash particles and suggesting additional mechanisms are needed for lightning formation at large distances from wildfires.
Contribution
It provides the first charge measurements of wildfire plumes at large distances, highlighting the role of ash particle charge and the need for other electrification processes.
Findings
Wildfire plumes remain mildly electrified up to 80 km from the fire.
Ash particles carry charge densities of 10^-8 to 10^-7 C/m^2.
Additional electrification mechanisms are likely necessary for pyrogenic lightning.
Abstract
Large wildfires are becoming more frequent at temperate latitudes. Often, fires generate massive convective columns that can carry solid particles (ash) into the stratosphere. Like their meteorological counterparts, pyrocumulonimbus (pyroCb) clouds can generate intense lightning storms. Recently, pyrogenic lightning has garnered renewed interest for its capacity to ignite new fires at large distances from the initial fire (in addition to representing a hazard in and of itself). Furthermore, and in analogy with volcanogenic lightning, pyrogenic lightning may offer novel opportunities to monitor and infer the internal dynamics of wildfires remotely. However, the electrification mechanisms underlying wildfire lightning require further clarification. Here, we report on charge measurements conducted during the 2022 Cedar Creek ``megafire.'' We find that a wildfire plume associated with…
Peer Reviews
No public reviews on file for this paper yet. If you reviewed it on a platform where reviews are public (OpenReview, ICLR, NeurIPS, ICML), you can paste yours below so the community can read it here.
Videos
No videos yet. Explain this paper in a talk, walkthrough, or lecture? Add one.
Taxonomy
TopicsLightning and Electromagnetic Phenomena · Fire effects on ecosystems
