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The Fire Danger Rating Index “FMA” as Control of Remote Sensoring System



Author(s)

Ernandes Aparecido Saraiva, Horácio Tertuliano, Ronaldo Viana Soares, Antônio Carlos Batista and Ana Maria Gomes

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DOI:10.17265/2162-5263/2016.03.007

Recent remote monitoring surveys of smoke produced by burning and forest fires using weather radar equipment showed excellent preliminary results, but their progress is hindered due to the high operating cost of radar systems. The fire danger rating index is a good indicator of the event occurrence probability, what contributes to the monitoring areas and adds value to the alert degree information. The application of FMA fire danger index “Formula de Monte Alegre” for areas in radar coverage radius of the S-band weather radar operated by the Meteorological Research Institute, IPMet, São Paulo State University, efficiently optimize the use of the radar equipment, significantly reduce operational costs, enable new research and promise results which have already reduced the average response time between ignition and detection for less than 5 minutes. It reduces more than 50% response time considered optimal for conventional detection systems. Thus, the “FMA” values act as a trigger (on-off) in the remote monitoring system of forest fires, optimizing its use at low cost, avoiding the possible stress of equipment and enabling the advance of research monitoring, detection of burnings and forest fires using weather radar.

Fire danger index, remote sensing, fire detection, weather radar