Wildfires in the United States burn an average of 7.3 million acres of land each year. The annual cost of fire suppression nationwide has averaged nearly $1 billion since 1984, but in six of the past 10 years the cost has approached $2 billion a year. Large catastrophic wildfires have become commonplace, especially in association with extended drought and extreme weather. The demand for timely, high-quality fire information has increased and peaks each summer when interagency fire operations respond to numerous, simultaneous major fires. Credit: NASA
Our handle on these wildfires is improving as a result of a new satellite-based tool developed by researchers at the University of Maryland with support from the NASA Applied Sciences Program and NOAA. Capitalizing on the Earth-observing capabilities of the VIIRS instrument on the Suomi NPPsatellite, Wilfrid Schroeder and his team developed an algorithm that improves fire observation from its current 1 square kilometer resolution to 375 square meters. The tool also enables improved active fire detection during the day and night, allowing firefighters to more precisely see fire scene boundaries and monitor outbreaks earlier.
RSAC has incorporated the new tool into its Active Fire Mapping Program, which provides a near real-time geospatial overview of the current wildland fire situation at regional and national scales for the United States and Canada. Twice a day, within minutes of the satellite passing over the fire, wildfire information is updated.
With the fire detection capabilities afforded by the new VIIRS 375 project, a cutting-edge fire-weather behavior model has demonstrated the ability to provide information important in preventing wildfire fatalities. Supported through an Applied Sciences project, Schroeder’s algorithm is able to initialize and update the innovative Coupled Atmosphere-Wildland Fire Environment (CAWFE) model, developed by Janice Coen at the National Center for Atmospheric Research. CAWFE combines a numerical weather prediction model and a fire behavior model to simulate the growth of a wildfire in response to weather, fuel conditions, and terrain.
Through the constant interaction of these models, CAWFE gives information on fire behavior, notably how fast and in which direction the fire propagates. Eg the Yarnell Hill fire that burned in Arizona in 2013, where 19 firefighters perished due to rapidly changing fire behavior, could have been predicted .
The fire detection product is a tool that can be used worldwide, as the instruments on Suomi NPP observe the entire planet throughout its orbit. Several countries have already requested its use; South Africa and Brazil are successful early adopters.
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