Micro Weather Stations
Risk Reduction Category
Technology Description
Conditions on the ground before a wildfire event—wind direction, speed, temperature, humidity—can provide clues about the conditions leading to development of the wildfire, conditions that may help predict the likelihood of a fire developing in a particular area so that preventive measures may occur. Likewise, monitored ground conditions can help in controlling prescribed burns intended to pre-empt wildfires.
Remote, local ground conditions may be communicated through the placement of “micro” weather stations within areas prone to wildfires as well as in nearby residential areas needing protection from those wildfires. Various sensors are available to measure air and/or water temperatures, humidity, soil temperatures, soil dampness, leaf wetness, perhaps several at once. Some of these stations and sensors may be somewhat expensive. One IEEE publication described a model developed by yet another reference—using soil moisture and temperature data obtained through remote sensing—for predicting the extent of wildfires.[6] [7]
One company, Onset, supplies dataloggers, and field sensors it has developed for such purposes. Historically, it developed relatively inexpensive, battery-operated devices—such as the HOBO. The HOBO® Weather Station may be set to collect readings on the hour or half-hour for weather parameters. The collected fire weather data may be used as inputs to fire modeling software such as FSpro (a predictive model that looks at the probability of the spread of fire). [1]
Intellisense Systems developed its Fire Weather Observation System (FWOS)—weighing 5 pounds and quickly deployable in sixty seconds or less. Fire weather-related data, including solar radiation, fuel moisture, particulate monitoring, and thermal imaging data may be transmitted wirelessly through cell-phone coverage or via satellite. They also provide software, Quantimet®, for handling the data. [2]
Advanced Engine Management (AEM), an organization producing monitoring systems for a wide variety of potentially disastrous situations (dam safety, flood risk, severe weather risk, etc.) owns Forest Technology Systems (FTS) which focuses on wildfire risks (monitoring and detection). Services and products include remote, automated weather stations (RAWS), wildfire PTZ cameras, quick deploy RAWS, and software integrating all sensors—the FTS360. A one-hour webinar (free) details their system and its use. [5]
Technical Readiness (Commercial Availability)
The following list of manufacturers is the product of an Internet search using a general description of the technology as the search term. Sometimes more than one variation on the search term is used. The objective is to identify the most demonstration-ready products available in the category. Toward assessing demonstration readiness, the manufacturer websites typically provide useful information such as writeups of successful use cases or field demonstrations, number of deployments, or other indicators. Where lack of information exists online, further inquiry is made by phone. Generally, one to three frontrunners emerge as being most ready for a field demonstration. Preference is given to manufacturers who sell to the United States, or, if emerging technology, those who have participated in US-based field demonstrations.
Advanced Engine Management/ Forest Technology Systems AEM/FTS
Implementations / Deployments
Southern California Edison (SCE) has an interactive Weather and Fire Detection Map system indicating areas under fire weather watch, red flag warning, wind advisory, high wind watch, and high wind warning. Such areas are indicated on an accompanying map. Power safety power shutoff (PSPS) action information is also provided. They may have helpful information concerning the sensors used in their system.[3] The map is powered by software from Environmental Systems Research Institute, Inc. (Esri) [4]
Innovations as of Mid 2023
Potential Enrichment Work Opportunity
References
[1] https://www.onsetcomp.com/resources/application-stories/weather-station-aids-wildfire-management
[2]https://www.intellisenseinc.com/news-events/news/fire-weather-observation-system-from-intellisense-helps-combat-wildfires-in-yosemite-national-park/
[3] https://www.sce.com/wildfire/situational-awareness
[4] https://www.esri.com/en-us/home
[5] https://aem.eco/solution/wildfire-risk-management/
[6] Three Lines of Defense for Wildfire Risk Management in Electric Power Grids: A Review, Ali Arab, et al., IEEEAccess, 4/28/2021.
[7] D. Chaparro, M. Vall-llossera, M. Piles, A. Camps, C. Rüdiger, and R. Riera-Tatche, ‘‘Predicting the extent of wildfires using remotely sensed soil moisture and temperature trends,’’ IEEE J. Sel. Topics Appl. Earth Observ. Remote Sens., vol. 9, no. 6, pp. 2818–2829, Jun. 2016.