Geophysical Institute programs provide near-real time information on lightning, fire — even smoke plumes
Near-real time satellite data provided by the University of Alaska Fairbanks Geophysical Institute is helping state and federal agencies fight wildfires ignited by last week’s thunderstorms.
Thunderstorms packing some 42,000 lightning strikes have ignited dozens of wildfires over the past 10 days that’ve burned some 47,000 acres around the state, and forced evacuations in at least two communities. And the agencies fighting all those fires over such a large area require a lot of information to help get resources where they’re needed, as quickly as possible.
“Alaska’s a big state,” says BLM Alaska Fire Service spokesperson Beth Ipsen. “It’s hard for us to get everywhere, to check every nook and cranny.”
Ipsen says that’s why fire managers are increasingly using maps updated by near-real-time satellite data to determine where lightning has struck and which fires require immediate response.
“It saves time, it saves money, because if we can see where some of these new fires are on a map,” she said, “and if we can send a plane out with our folks on it to see, get kind of eyes on and verify that yes, we’ve got a new fire.”
Melania Stroebel, an Alaska Fire Service Geographic Information System specialist, says that maps also improve safety by enabling firefighting agencies to reduce the number of spotter planes they dispatch to risky areas around wildfires.
“It has really streamlined our processes throughout the day and focused our efforts in not only fighting fire but also detecting fire,” she said.
Stroebel says the AFS and state Forestry and Fire Protection Division have in recent years been relying more on maps and other digital products generated by the University of Alaska Fairbanks Geophysical Institute. The fire agencies then use those products for online resources like multi-layered maps that show lightning strikes, fire location and size, and even wildfire-smoke plumes.
“The GIS technology and the web-mapping technology has changed tremendously in the last handful of years,” she said.
And so has the technology behind sensors that are aboard three satellites operated by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, The satellites pass over both the north and south poles and transmit data collected by those sensors to two Geophysical Institute-operated antenna dishes. Then it’s crunched by a computer array operated by the institute’s Geographic Information Network of Alaska, says GINA Director Jen Delamere.
“And within, y’know, 15 to 20 minutes of the satellite overpass,” she said, “we’re generating a huge array of products that go out to our partners, like the Alaska Fire Service, the National Weather Service and Alaska Volcano Observatory.”
Delamere says the organization gets the critical digital products out to those agencies as quickly as possible.
“Alaska is enormous. There’s not a lot of surface observations,” she said. “There’s not a lot of people. So we need satellites to see our state.”
Delamere says those agencies in turn develop their own products for their use -- like the AFS-operated Alaska Wildland Fire Information Map Series.
“It’s a public site, and it’s highly popular,” she said.
Stroebel, the Fire Service GIS specialist, says GINA’s digital products are now among the agency’s most important tools for finding fires or hot spots in remote areas.
“Every morning, when our staff comes in, they look at the maps on their computer and look for new heat points,” she said.
Stroebel says Fire Service’s use of digital products has come a long way since she began working for the agency eight years ago. And she’s looking forward to seeing how it will evolve further in the years ahead.
