Simulation of Localized Forest Fires in North China based on WRF-SFIRE Model

Expand
  • 1. China Meteorological Administration Xiong'an Atmospheric Boundary Layer Key LaboratoryXiong'an New Area 071800HebeiChina
    2. Hebei Key Laboratory of Meteorology and Modern EconomyShijiazhuang 050000HebeiChina
    3. Hebei Institute of Meteorological SciencesShijiazhuang 050000HebeiChina
    4. National Meteorological Information CenterBeijing 100081China
    5. College of Atmospheric SciencesChengdu University of Information TechnologyChengdu 610225SichuanChina

Online published: 2026-04-13

Abstract

North China is characterized by complex topographyfeaturing dense vegetation in the Taihang Mountains and Yanshan Mountains. Forest fires frequently occur during winter and spring. To address the need for simulating and predicting forest fire spread at meso-and micro-scalethis study employs the coupled atmo‐ spheric-wildfire model WRF-SFIRE to conduct high-resolution simulations of a forest fire event that occurred at the Jin-Ji junction during the“2-20”period in 2021. Seven sensitivity experiments are designed to assess the ef‐ fects of topographyland usefuel typeland surface assimilation forcingand large eddy simulation. The exper‐ iments incorporate GDEMV3 30 m topographyGLC_FCS30_2020 30 m land useESA_WorldCover 10 m land coverand CLDAS high-precision soil temperature and moisture initial fields. The results demonstrate that the WRF-SFIRE model effectively reproduces the diurnal variations and probability distribution of wind speedwind directionand temperaturedemonstrating strong agreement between simulated and observed meteorological fields. The simulated fire evolution exhibits distinct stages of ignitionstabilizationaccelerationand decay. The spatial and temporal characteristics of the simulated burn area closely match satellite-based fire detection re‐ sultsaccurately reflecting the real fire development process. The sensitivity experiments under different configu‐ rations reveal that incorporating high-resolution static datasets substantially improves the model’s representation of wind field structure and fire behavior. Notablyland use and fuel accuracy have the most pronounced influ‐ ence on fire spreadwhile topographic elevation significantly modulates the feedback process of forest fire be‐ havior in complex terrain. Moreoverintroducing CLDAS soil temperature and moisture fields as driving inputs notably enhances the simulation accuracy of 2 m temperaturewhich verified its value in meso-and micro-scale forest fire forecasting. Converselyenabling large eddy simulationLESat 1 km resolution did not improve t performance and instead introduced wind-related instabilitiessuggesting that LES should be applied cautiously at mesoscale resolutions. In summarythis study evaluates the applicability of the WRF-SFIRE model in meso‐ scale and microscale forest regionsanalyzes the meteorological evolution and fire response mechanisms during the spread of forest fires. The findings highlight that integrating multi-source high-resolution datasets with authen‐ tic land surface conditions is crucial for enhancing wildfire forecasting capabilities. This research not only ad‐ vances the theoretical understanding of atmosphere-fire interactions in complex topographybut also provides scientific support for forest and grassland fire prevention and suppression effortsas well as long-term ecosystem conservation in North China.

Cite this article

GAO Huanxin, SHI Chunxiang, MAO Wenshu, QUAN Chang, XIANG Yun, ZUO Dapeng . Simulation of Localized Forest Fires in North China based on WRF-SFIRE Model[J]. Plateau Meteorology, 0 : 1 . DOI: 10.7522/j.issn.1000-0534.2025.00103

Outlines

/