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The BlueSky Framework is a model management system that facilitates ease and flexibility in running third-party models to simulate the cumulative impacts of multiple fires (Larkin et al., 2008). Developed by the US Department of Agriculture-Forest Service (USFS), it facilitates coordinated operation of models to predict emissions from fires and resultant ground-level concentrations of fine particulate matter (PM2. 5) and other pollutants. The BlueSky Framework has recently undergone significant re-engineering and improvements, and is currently being applied to the US Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) National Emission Inventory (NEI) for operations supporting real-time air quality predictions, and for a variety of smoke impacts management and planning tools. The re-engineered system is modular, adaptable, and easy to use; and it offers a wide variety of options and models built in.

A major development complementing the re-engineered BlueSky Framework is a system that prepares fire activity data—the Satellite Mapping Automatic Reanalysis Tool for Fire Incident Reconciliation (SMARTFIRE). SMARTFIRE integrates and reconciles fire activity data from multiple information sources—ie, databases of satellite-detected fires, records of human-reported fires, or other sources. Hence, SMARTFIRE harnesses the advantages of multiple information sources by retaining the value added by each data set while avoiding double counting. Its algorithms apply geographic information to associate proximate fires, define large events or fire complexes, and maintain these associations over time as fire events progress across the landscape, merge, or …