Coupled Atmosphere-Bushfire Modelling with Application to Canberra 2003

Bushfires often cause great damage and loss of life, and are especially dangerous in those areas where Australia s large urban communities merge with their rural surroundings. The most recent example is Canberra in 2003. The huge advances made in computer technology and mathematical numerical modelling will be applied directly to bushfire meteorology problems. This project will determine how best to represent combustion in such a model; will develop computational methods to more accurately predict the behaviour and spread of bushfires in complex terrain, especially when affected by the passage of a cold front; and will investigate the dynamics of the bushfire smoke plume. The project will use the Canberra fires of 2003 as a test bed.