Eli CahanScience’s COVID-19 reporting is supported by the Pulitzer Center and the Heising-Simons Foundation.In October, if Roger Ottmar gets his wish, researchers will set fire to nearly 500 hectares of dense woodland in southwestern Utah.
But COVID-19 may get in the way.Ottmar, a research forester with the U.S. Forest Service’s Pacific Northwest Research Station, is lead investigator for the Fire and Smoke Model Evaluation Experiment (FASMEE).
The experiment is an ambitious effort involving dozens of scientists from across the country. Equipped with light detection and ranging sensors, radar, satellites, and drones—along with flamethrowers to kindle blazes—they study how wildfires are born and evolve.