FY2004 Research Products
Boreal forest control initiative (BEFCI) system: Fairbanks, Alaska
- PI: Dr. Masami Fukuda
- Project title: Boreal Forest Fire Control Initiative (BFFCI) System and Ground Observation in Fairbanks, Alaska
The Boreal Forest Fire Control Initiative (BFFCI) is a system to identify, monitor, analyze and assess the risk potential of boreal wildfires in Alaska and east Siberia. Our aim is to reduce man-made boreal forest fires through establishment of an intelligent information system to support efficient fire fighting activity. Toward this aim we have five individual objectives. The first is the establishment of forest fire information network. The second is validation of remote sensing fire detection by comparison with ground observations. The third is to develop a model of wildfire forecasting, occurrence and post-ignition development. The fourth is to develop a real-time risk evaluation model based on the wildfire forecast model. The last is to evaluate the local economical impacts from boreal forest fires.
Three principal observational data sources of the BFFCI system are from satellite (MODIS and NOAA AVHRR), aerial (by commercial aviation pilots) and ground (e.g. U.S. Forest Service) observations. Image and ground data processing, analysis and risk potential assessment are performed at the international Arctic Research Center (IARC), University of Alaska Fairbanks, Fairbanks, Alaska, U.S.A. and at the Research Center for North Eurasia and North Pacific Regions, Hokkaido University, Sapporo, Hokkaido, Japan.
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| Figure 1. The Boreal Forest Fire Control Initiative (BFFCI) System (copyright, K. Nakau). |
Figure 2. NOAA-16 satellite image of boreal wildfire hotspots in east Siberia on July 24, 2003 (copyright, M. Fukuda). The yellow circle indicates the location of the aerial image from a plane in Figure3 (not shown in this page). |
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