AMS issues call for papers

The American Meteorological Society's Fifth Symposium on Fire and Forest Meteorology will be held Nov. 17-21, 2003, in Orlando, Fla. The symposium will be held jointly with the Second International Congress on Wildland Fire Ecology and Fire Management.

The theme of the symposium will be to share experiences, new techniques and technologies and changes in the areas of:

Coupled fire-atmosphere modeling;
Use of mesoscale meteorological models for short-range fire planning, including, but not limited to, application of the next-generation fire danger rating system;
Use and development of weather forecasts for prescribed fire planning and execution;
Techniques in smoke management and air quality mitigation related to the new national fire policy and new NAAQS and haze standards;
Mid- and long-range forecasting for fire control and fire use planning;
Operational and near-operational fire weather forecasting techniques and the use of new technologies and resources;
Weather applications for operational fire behavior assessment and forecasts;
Use and assessment of climate forecasts in fire management planning;
Impacts of weather and climate on wildfire; and
Use of weather and climate information for wildfire decision-making.

Joint sessions will be held on the application of weather and climate science to the management of wildland fire and the integration of atmospheric science and fire ecology. Participants with additional suggestions for the program are encouraged to contact the program chairs.

Please submit your abstract via the Web by June 1, 2003. Instructions are available at <www.ametsoc.org/ams>. An abstract fee of $60 is charged at the time of submission, refundable only if the abstract is not accepted. Authors of accepted presentations will be notified via e-mail by mid-July.

For further information, contact either one of the program cochairs:

Sue Ferguson, Forestry Sciences Lab, 4043 Roosevelt Way N.E., Seattle, Wash. 98105-6497; 206-732-7828, fax: 206-732-7801; <sferguson@fs.fed.us> or

Tim Brown, Desert Research Institute, 2215 Raggio Parkway, Reno, Nev. 89512-1095; 775-674-7090, fax: 775-674-7016; <tbrown@dri.edu>.