Leading fire meteorologist Theodore Giannaros explains the terrifying new reality of extreme wildfires that couple with the atmosphere to create their own weather, defying traditional prediction models. Discover the "missing piece" in our understanding—3D meteorology—and learn why fires are no longer going to sleep at night, how remote sensing tools like radar and lidar are essential for research, and why scientists and firefighters must work together to "reverse engineer" effective solutions.
In this episode, you'll learn about:
Fire-Atmosphere Coupling: The science behind extreme fires that generate their own wind, vortices, and weather.
The 3D Atmosphere: Why surface weather is no longer enough to predict the behavior of today's megafires.
The Fires That Don't Sleep: How climate change is eroding the crucial nighttime window for firefighting.
The Vicious Feedback Loop: How massive fires are accelerating climate change, which in turn creates more fire.
Remote Sensing the Blaze: Using tools like mobile radar and lidar to safely study extreme fire behavior.
Reverse Engineering from the Decision: A new philosophy for developing scientific tools that are truly useful to practitioners on the ground.
Hiding the Complexity: The importance of making complex science simple to use without hiding the uncertainty.
Integrity & Passion: The two most important values for the next generation of scientists.
