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South Africa Builds on Advanced U.S. Fire-Detection Technology

NASA, university experts use remote sensing, text messaging to alert public

Active fire maps are being broadcast on television in South Africa and fire alerts are sent over cell phones there, thanks to NASA satellites and remote-sensing technology developed at the NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, Science Systems and Applications Inc. (SSAI) and the University of Maryland.

The fire map - funded by the South African Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) and the power utility Eskom Holdings, which produces 95 percent of South Africa's electricity - shows active vegetation fires throughout South Africa that satellites detected over the past 12 hours.

The map is a product of the Advanced Fire Information System (AFIS), a satellite-based fire information tool developed in the United States that delivers the locations of active fires in near-real time over southern Africa.

The application of remote sensing and an Internet-based Geographical Information System (WebGIS) combined with cell phone technology for alert messaging (or short message service [SMS]) is the first of its kind in the world.

A GIS is a computer application used to store, view and analyze geographical information, especially maps.

In such digital maps, satellite, aerial photography and other data representing an area's attributes and characteristics can be arranged in layers. GIS applications include hazard detection, exploration, demographics, dispatching, tracking and mapmaking.

BIRTH OF A FIRE DETECTION SYSTEM

In September 2001, an explosive fire in Kruger National Park in northern South Africa killed 21 people and injured others. The deadly fire burned near the town of Skukuza and spread rapidly in the winds that blow across South Africa at the end of the region's dry season.

"That was a real disaster for South Africa," said Diane Davies, principal investigator for the AFIS project in the University of Maryland Department of Geography, "and it was thought that if they had had their own real-time fire monitoring system, they might have been able to save those lives."

Afterward, she added, the South African Department of Agriculture bought a satellite receiving system for Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) data that is acquired by NASA's Aqua and Terra satellites.

Aqua studies global climate with an emphasis on water in the Earth-atmosphere system; Terra is a mission with Canada and Japan that collects data about the atmosphere.

Terra passes north to south across the equator in the morning, Aqua passes south to north over the equator in the afternoon, and MODIS is a key instrument aboard both satellites, which together view the entire Earth's surface every one to two days.

With the MODIS direct broadcast system installed at the Satellite Applications Center (SAC) in Pretoria, SAC officials asked experts at the University of Maryland and NASA to help demonstrate the utility of a fire early warning system to the South African National Disaster Management Center and Eskom.

FIRE MAPPING

In response, Davies, working with South African colleagues in 2003, set up in South Africa a WebGIS called AFIS, which was based on the Web Fire Mapper system developed at the University of Maryland.

The mapper displays active fires detected by the MODIS Rapid Response System, a collaboration between NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, SSAI and the University of Maryland that provides fast global access to MODIS data.

The team also expanded a prototype e-mail alert system developed at the University of Maryland into an SMS text messaging system that alerts Eskom staff when fires are detected near electricity transmission lines.

"We did the AFIS project as a prototype and tested it for a year in 2004 to see how successful it was," Davies said, "and it's been very successful."

Eskom noticed a significant drop - 30 percent - in the number of fire-related incidents on the company's power lines, Davies added, and has committed to making the system available to others all over South Africa.

The Department of Agriculture and South Africa's National Disaster Management Center also use AFIS.

Other countries using the Web Fire Mapper, Davies said, include Tanzania, Madagascar, China, Canada, Zimbabwe, Germany, France, Brazil and Namibia.

WEBGIS

Anyone can use the Web Fire Mapper, Davies said, by visiting the Web site and downloading active fire points anywhere in the world. An e-mail alert prototype system is available for some parts of the world and will be operational for the rest of the world by the end of the year.

MODIS data is processed by the MODIS Rapid Response system, which produces fire information and images. Davies and her team then make the fire coordinates available through the WebGIS, where it becomes an active fire map. Maps are available for the entire planet, divided by regions.

Building on the success of the South African AFIS system, Davies said, NASA began funding in January the Global Fire Information for Resource Management System (FIRMS).

FIRMS is refining the Web Fire Mapper to integrate remote sensing and GIS technologies to provide global fire information in easy-to-use formats for decision making in protected areas and for agricultural monitoring systems.

The application will expand the WebGIS prototype into an operational system that ultimately will be housed at the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization and the U.N. Environment Programme to ensure data continuity and allow the United Nations to help developing countries protect biodiversity.

FIRMS will consist of a WebGIS with interactive maps, near-real time NASA imagery and e-mail and text message alerts warning of fires in or around protected areas.

Source: U.S. Department of State