To: steve wofsy Subject: Fire and NACP Steve Before I sent a comment directly to the NACP email address, I wanted to discuss the topic of the role of fire emissions within NACP. Recall, I brought up this subject at the last plenary (with respect to the near term planning) and you replied it was something you needed to think about. In the land group lead by R. Birdsey, the topic of fire was briefly discussed. However, I believe the context most people were thinking about is the indirect role of fire, e.g., its role as an agent of land cover change. I still believe that the direct role of fire has to be addressed more clearly. In particular, during any field campaigns, large fires that occur in the Western U.S., Canada, Alaska, and even Siberia will result in the generation of large plumes containing elevated levels of CO2, CO and CH4. These plumes have very complex dispersion patterns - while they can easily be detected on airborne measurements, this is only one step in understanding how these plumes are influencing the suite of measurements being collected for NACP. I'd be willing to comment on this topic to the official pages, however, I'd like some guidance on where and how much needs to be added. Eric -- Eric S. Kasischke Associate Professor Department of Geography 2181 LeFrak Hall University of Maryland College Park, MD 20742 email: kk169@umail.umd.edu phone: 301 405 2179 fax: 301 314 9299 url: http://www.geog.umd.edu/borealfire/eric.html