Taking the Wild out of Wildfire
 
Dec 1, 2015:  Wildland fires in the U.S. torch an average of 7 million acres
of land each year. The western U.S. is one of the worst wildland fire
`hotspots' on Earth. In the western states, drought and heat are the perfect
ingredients to make wildfires wilder. The hot, dry conditions make bone-dry
fuel out of plants and trees, and winds can sweep a fire along as fast as 14
miles an hour.
 
A new NASA-funded tool is taking some of the `wild' out of wildfires by making
it possible for U.S. fire managers to better spot and track fires.
 
http://tinyurl.com/zzw8suv
 
The new tool uses high-resolution data from a special sensor on the Suomi
National Polar-orbiting Partnership (NPP) satellite. Past satellite images of
wildfires have shown where fires are burning. But except for the largest
fires, they don't show clearly where the devouring flames are headed. Images
from the Visible Infrared Imaging Radiometer Suite (VIIRS) on NPP are almost
three times more detailed -- about 1,200 foot resolution vs 3,280 foot
resolution.
 
This means officials can detect and map even relatively small fires and track
their progression in much finer detail. Fire managers can better target their
attack before a fire morphs into an out-of-control inferno incinerating
everything in its path.
 
The VIIRS data can be used with a state-of-the-art weather-fire model to
predict 12-18 hours in advance of how a fire will shift direction based on
weather and land conditions. Within minutes of the satellite overpass, users
can pinpoint active fire locations and anticipate sudden blowups and shifts in
a fire's direction that could help keep firefighters out of harm's way.
 
The Meraka Institute in Pretoria, South Africa served as an early adopter of
the new fire product, putting it to use during several large wildfires in
South Africa's Kruger National Park.
 
Meraka's Philip Frost said, "We had some serious wildfires in September 2014,
and the VIIRS 375-meter data performed excellently."
 
Wilfred Schroader of the University of Maryland Collage Park said, "We hope
that by infusing the higher resolution detection data and fire behavior
modeling outputs into tactical fire situations, we can lessen the pressure on
those working in fire management." Schroeder leads the project team that
developed the weather-fire model along with Janice Coen of the National Center
for Atmospheric Research (NCAR) in Boulder, Colorado.
 
The new VIIRS fire detection product was developed with support from NASA's
Earth Science division, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration,
and the U.S. Forest Service.
 
Active fire maps of the United States are available online at: h
tp://activefiremaps.fs.fed.us
 
 
Regards,
 
Roger

--- DB 3.99 + Windows 10
 * Origin: NCS BBS - Houma, LoUiSiAna (1:3828/7)