LAB Announcements

Spotlight

Scott Speckart

Scott Speckart

Hometown: Salt Lake City

Program: PhD (Graduated December 2013)

Current Position: Air Dispersion Modeler, Nevada Division of Environmental Protection

Research Interests: My interests include: the examination of atmospheric dispersion both numerically and experimentally. The numerical aspect spans from Lagrangian dispersion models to simpler Atmospheric dispersion models (ADE). Comparing these model results with measurements from the field is very rewarding. My research has implemented these models and methodology to understanding the problem of near source deposition of PM10 generated from traffic on unpaved roads.

I am also interested in the modeling of turbulence. This includes the implementation of simple mixing length models to more complex Large Eddy Simulation (LES). The application of these methods Atmospheric flows to smaller scale engineering flows is of great interest to me.

Publications:
Speckart, S., Pardyjak, E., Quick response modeling of windbreaks (Manuscript under preparation).
Speckart, S., Pardyjak, E., Veranth J.V., Parameters that influence the removal of PM10 in the near source zone downwind of unpaved roads: suggested by field studies and confirmed by numerical solution (Manuscript under preparation).
Holmes, H.A., Pardyjak, E.R., Speckart S.O., Alexander A., 2011. Comparison of indoor/outdoor carbon content and time resolved PM concentrations for gas and biomass cooking fuels in Nogales Sonora. Atmospheric Environment 45:7600-7611
Pardyjak, E.R., Speckart, S. O., Yin F., Veranth J.M., 2008. Near source deposition of vehicle generated fugitive dust on vegetation and buildings: Model development and theory. Atmospheric Environment 42: 6442–6452
J. Veranth, S. Speckart, B. Addepelli, and E. Pardyjak, 2010: Development of windbreak dust control models for roadway fugitive dust mitigation and transport flux, AAAR 29th Annual Conference, Portland, OR, 25-29 October 2010. Paper Number: 8.B.16
John M. Veranth, Kevin Perry, Eric Pardyjak, Scott Speckart, Raed Labban, Erin Kaser, John Watson, Judy C. Chow, Vic Etyemezian, Steve Kohl, “Characterization of PM2.5 Dust Emissions from Training/Testing Range Operations." Strategic Environmental Research and Development Program (SERDP) Project SI-1190 August 2008)
John Veranth, Scott Speckart, Eric Pardyjak, “Experimental and modeling study of particle deposition near roads.” (American Association for Aerosol Research (AAAR) Reno Nevada, September 2007)
H.A. Holmes, S. O. Speckart and E. R. Pardyjak, 2007: Comparison of the time evolved spatial distribution of urban PM2.5 concentrations during burning and wind-blown high PM events in Yuma, AZ, Amer. Meteor. Soc., Seventh Symposium on the Urban Environment, San Diego, CA, 10-13 September 2007, paper 8.5.
Eric Pardyjak, Prathap Ramamurthy, Scott Speckart, “Development of a windbreak dust control strategy tool for communities in arid climates such as the US-Mexico border region.” (Southwest Consortium for Environmental Research and Policy (SCERP) Annual Technical Conference, Tucson Arizona, December 2006)
Eric Pardyjak, Scott Speckart, “Assessment of windbreaks as a dust control strategy for communities in arid climates such as the US-Mexico border region.” (Southwest Consortium for Environmental Research and Policy (SCERP) Annual Technical Conference, San Diego January 2006)
Veranth , J., S. Speckart, E. Pardyjak, V. Etyemezian, Experimental and numerical studies of near source fugitive dust transport, American Association for Aerosol Research, 2005 Annual Conference, Austin, Texas October 17 - 21, 2005.
Scott Speckart, Eric Pardyjak, Vic Etyemezian, Fang Yin, John Veranth,” Computational Modeling of Near-Source Deposition of Fugitive Dust on Vegetative Surfaces.” (Air and Waste Management Association Conference, Minneapolis Minnesota, June 2005)

PREEVENTS Track 2: A fast-response wildland fire modeling framework for prediction and risk assessment

Fire Vortex at the USDA Fire Sciences Lab in Missoula

Supported by the National Science Foundation - PREEVENTS 1664175

Investigators, Senior Personnel, and Collaborators:
Steven Krueger (Utah, Principal Investigator)
Jan Mandel (CU, Denver, Co-Principal Investigator)
Peter Willemsen (Univ. of Minn., Duluth, Co-Principal Investigator)
Eric Pardyjak (Utah, Co-Principal Investigator)
Adam Kochanski (Utah, Co-Principal Investigator)
Rob Stoll (Utah, Senior Personnel)
Mary Ann Jenkins (Utah, Senior Personnel)
Natailie Wagenbrenner (Collaborator, USDA Fire Sciences Lab)

Students:

Wildfires are increasingly common throughout the US and have significant impacts on populated areas. Current rapid-response management is based on empirical or semi-empirical models developed more than 40 years ago. The focus of this project is to create a Multistage Wildfire Research and Prediction System (MWRPS) that links several existing community, open source models developed. This new model has the potential to change how fire is studied, and significantly improve operational wildfire and smoke forecasting. MWRPS will serve as tool for fire professionals, urban and environmental planners, and disaster managers who need to determine the societal and ecological impacts of wildfire and smoke. As a community model, MWRPS will be available to the public to examine a variety of hazard-related issues. In addition to graduate student and postdoctoral training, the project includes a plan for K-12 outreach through the Hi-GEAR program. Sudden changes in flow at the fire line are crucial to extreme fire behavior and associated hazards. Because flow at the fire line can significantly impact fire spread and subsequently all wildfire behavior, prediction and simulation of coupled atmosphere-fire flow must be accurate from synoptic down to fire line scales. Accurate prediction requires the ability to model rapid synoptically-driven changes in local winds, realistically render flow in complex terrain, and capture the impacts of the fire itself on local weather. To meet this challenge, the Multistage Wildfire Research and Prediction System (MWRPS), a multi-scale model, 3D model will be developed based on fundamental fluid dynamical principles. MWRPS will have the ability to resolve buildings, trees, and land cover, to incorporate the effects of complex terrain, different vegetation types and geometries, to disperse smoke, and to represent radiation, sensible, and latent heating in the wildfire environment. Predicted wildfire properties from this model will include high resolution temporal and spatial evolution of the fire perimeter and intensity; behavior for both surface and crown fires; smoke production and dispersion in the Wildland Urban Interface (WUI) or through tree canopies (crucial for planning a proposed prescribed burn); and impacts of smoke concentrations and of heat flux in safety zones and on WUI structures. In addition to the model development, three aspects of extreme wildfire behavior will be addressed: the roles of (1) fuel heterogeneity, (2) complex topography, and (3) fire interactions. A data-driven system will be developed for atmosphere-fire models to steer simulations from a multitude of sources including: weather data, sensors, airborne fire images, and satellite remote sensing in a statistically sound manner.