Little Fires Everywhere
Firetracker and Fireforecast
Map
Actual Fires: Actual Fires are displayed with an fire icon when a red rectangle is chosen from the map. Forecast: The progression of the fire is computed when an red rectangle has been selected. Please allow some time as retrieving the weather data and the calculations take some time. Additional data will be refreshed subsequently. The forecast is only calculated for clearly identified fires. Click on the hand icon to zoom to the prediction. Then click on the hand symbol of the dark red circles to open a popup with weather and soil data. At the bottom of the popup there is an orange time slider that controls the predicted development of the fire. Data Display Control: All data can be switched on and off individually using the control at the top right of the map. Fullscreen mode: Fullscreen mode can be activated by selecting the first icon at the bottom right. Fullscreen is not working on iPhone with Safari.
Data
Active fire data
Active fire incidents are sourced every 24 hours from the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS).
These actual fire data points—referred to as thermal anomalies—are pinpointed at the center of 1 km pixel areas.
Forecast fire data
To predict the fire's progression: wind speed at 10m, wind direction at 10m, relative humidity at 2m, evapotranspiration,
rain, soil temperature, soil moisture and temperature at 2m are accessed from the Open Meteo API.
Using the time when the satellite detected the fire, the fire's direction and speed is estimated for the upcoming 24 hours based on the satellite's data acquisition time and the weather forecast parameters.
For the spread prediction, the Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) was computed from current MODIS data using the near-infrared (NIR) and red (RED) bands.
These NDVI data are updated every 16 days and have a resolution of 250 meters.
Wildfires are on the rise. Not every small fire develops into a major blaze, and in many countries, the tendency is to wait and see if the fire extinguishes itself. This is perilous, as combating a major wildfire results in significant human and environmental losses. Every forest fire, every burning tree, has a detrimental impact on the climate.
To effectively battle large forest fires, extensive resources are required, including specialized aircraft and dedicated personnel. Hence, it is wiser to extinguish every small fire immediately. To achieve this, it's crucial to swiftly detect where a fire is emerging. Often, the initial spark goes unnoticed.
It pains me deeply to witness the escalation of major forest fires every summer in the news, exacerbating the climate and environmental crisis. With this app, I endeavor to create a solution that predicts the path of a fire based on current weather parameters and ground conditions. For instance, if a fire is approaching large lakes, marshes, rivers, or the sea, emergency personnel could be organized and deployed more effectively in other areas.
I am a physicist with many years of experience in software development and data science. This project is my personal commitment and has consumed a significant amount of my free time. I am seeking sponsors who would like to support my work.
T. Reize
Contact
Please feel free to reach out to me through my LinkedIn account: Tanja Reize.