Camp Swift Fire Experiment 2014: In-situ anemometer measurements

This data publication contains anemometer measurements from a set of 41 instruments collected as part of a prescribed fire research campaign conducted at the Camp Swift Military Base in Bastrop County, Texas on January 14 and 15, 2014. The Camp Swift Fire Experiment 2014 consisted of three fires ignited in burn blocks of dimensions 100 meters (m) by 100 m on January 15, 2014. Fires were ignited on relatively flat areas of grass vegetation in moderate winds. Anemometer measurements around the three burn blocks began on January 14, 2014 and continued until shortly after completion of the three burns on January 15, 2014. Each anemometer tower measures wind speed and directions, with 40 sensors mounted at 3.3-meters (m) Above Ground Level (AGL). One sensor on the downwind side of the burn blocks was mounted at 1.5-m to test the effect vegetation might have on wind. These data are used to characterize surface flow patterns before and during the burns. Cup revolutions and unit vector components were sampled at a frequency of three-seconds. Wind speed is the average speed for the entire three-second logging interval. Gust speed is the highest three-second wind recorded during the logging interval. Average direction is calculated from the average of the vector components.
The objective of the research burns was to create a dataset comprised of ground based and remote sensing measurements. Quantifying the wind behavior inside the burn areas and surrounding test areas by installing wind instruments along the perimeter of the burn blocks was the overall intent of this dataset. Data gathered by these instruments showed wind behavior at the boundaries of the burn blocks and adjacent areas before, during and after the test burns. Prior to the day of ignition, fuels were cleared around wind instruments to reduce damage from fire. The placement of fire instrumentation also supplemented the data gathered by the wind instruments inside the burn blocks and a Sonic Detection and Ranging (SODAR) instrument on the west side of the burn blocks. This dataset was intended to be part of a larger dataset encompassing multiple wind height measurements from two additional SODAR, two ten-meter wind towers, and Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) wind instrumentation. The data from these additional instruments could not be integrated, analyzed and published to date due to issues with quality control, data delivery and documentation. These wind measurements were conducted, specifically, onsite in order to document the local wind environment prior to, during and after the burns. Little is understood currently about the quality and quantity of wind instrumentation required for research burns. Specifically, further analysis of these wind measurements might provide information regarding the magnitude of instrumentation required for simple scenarios and relatively flat environments such as occurred at the Camp Swift research burns. Also, wind measurements portrayed in this dataset portray ambient wind conditions around the time of the burns that can facilitate the development of model inputs. Finally, due to the relative proximity of the anemometers to the fire, there might be fire generated changes in the wind that might be observed in some of these data.
A summary of the Camp Swift project can be found in the full data download (\Supplements\ CampSwiftFireExperiment2014_Project_Overview.pdf). A United States Forest Service ArcGIS Online interactive website is also developed to describe the study and examine the integrated data quality for the Camp Swift effort (see cross reference below). Finally, a document detailing the procedures used to set up the burn blocks can be found in the full data download (\Supplements\CampSwiftFireExperiment2014_BurnBlockDesign.pdf).