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Oak Ridge National Laboratory responded to Gatlinburg fires

Posted at 1:28 pm December 28, 2016
By Oak Ridge Today Staff Leave a Comment

oak-ridge-national-laboratory-fire-department-in-gatlinburg-incident-command-center-november-2016

Oak Ridge National Laboratory Fire Department Chief Officers Daron Long, Larry Lewis, and Danny Parker (in navy polo shirts) are pictured above in the Incident Command Center. (Photo by ORNL)

 

By U.S. Department of Energy

The Great Smoky Mountains, which are normally wet and hazy, had been in a particularly prolonged drought when a fire started near a popular lookout several miles from the resort town of Gatlinburg, Tennessee, just before Thanksgiving. Park officials warily watched the slowly spreading blaze, which was in nearly vertical and mostly unreachable terrain.

At the close of the holiday weekend, a weather system moved in, whipping up gale-force winds hours ahead of the rain. The wind supercharged the fire, driving eerie, thick smoke down the basin toward the town. By Monday night, the homes, resorts, and businesses surrounding Gatlinburg were in the middle of a firestorm as flames destroyed structure after structure. Downed power lines sparked separate fires.

On the evening of November 28, park and city officials reached out to firefighters in the region for support as flames engulfed entire neighborhoods. By the time quenching rains arrived, the 17,000-acre forest fire had burned 1,700 structures—many of them homes—and took 14 lives.

Firefighters from Oak Ridge National Laboratory, located about 50 miles away, were among those who answered the call. With an immediate go-ahead from the ORNL Site Office, the ORNL Fire Department, or ORNLFD, dispatched resources to assist responders in Gatlinburg and neighboring Pigeon Forge. [Read more…]

Filed Under: Front Page News, Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Top Stories, U.S. Department of Energy Tagged With: Brian Johnson, Danny Parker, Daron Keesee, Daron Long, David King, Dennis Brock, Doug Eckard, forest fire, Gary Watlington, Gatlinburg, Gatlinburg fires, Great Smoky Mountains, Jeff Chambers, Larry Lewis, Mandy Lindwall, Maria McClelland, Mike Masters, Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Oak Ridge National Laboratory Fire Department, ORNL, ORNL Site Office, ORNLFD, Pigeon Forge, Randy Williams, Ryan Hargis, Shelia Hillard, Tony Bloyd, U.S. Department of Energy

ORNL part of project to study how tropical forests respond to climate change

Posted at 9:25 pm April 1, 2015
By Oak Ridge National Laboratory 4 Comments

Amazon Tropical Rainforests

The future of tropical rainforests in the Amazon (pictured) and worldwide is the focus of a new research project that combines field experiments and predictive modeling. (Photo courtesy ORNL)

 

Researchers from Oak Ridge National Laboratory will play key roles in an expansive new project that aims to bring the future of tropical forests and the climate system into much clearer focus by coupling field research with the development of a new ecosystem model.

The project is called the Next Generation Ecosystem Experiments-Tropics, or NGEE-Tropics. Its goal is the development of a model that represents how tropical forests interact with Earth’s climate in much greater ecological detail than ever before. This will help scientists explore, more accurately than is possible today, how rising temperatures, shifting precipitation patterns, increasing greenhouse gas levels, and other natural and human-induced changes affect tropical forests’ influence on Earth’s climate.

Led by DOE’s Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab), the effort includes collaborators from Oak Ridge, Brookhaven, Los Alamos, and Pacific Northwest national laboratories. The study also includes researchers from the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute, the U.S. Forest Service, the National Center for Atmospheric Research, NASA, and several institutions from other nations. [Read more…]

Filed Under: Front Page News, Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Top Stories, U.S. Department of Energy Tagged With: Berkeley Lab, Brazil, Brookhaven National Laboratory, climate, climate change, Climate Change Institute, climate system, Colleen Iversen, greenhouse gas levels, Jeff Chambers, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Los Alamos National Laboratory, NASA, National Center for Atmospheric Research, Next Generation Ecosystem Experiments-Tropics, NGEE-Arctic, NGEE-Tropics, Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Office of Science, ORNL, Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, Panama, precipitation patterns, predictive modeling, Puerto Rico, rainforests, Rich Norby, rising temperatures, Scott Painter, Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute, tropical forest ecosystem, tropical forests, tropical rainforests, U.S. Department of Energy, U.S. Forest Service

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