by Forest Protection Chief Darryl Jones
Pilot project
The SCFC is participating in a pilot project with the Fire Neural Network (FNN) using 10 lightning detectors in SC. The sensors were installed in April, and we are receiving lightning data now.
While the pilot project does not include enough sensors to cover the entire state, it does cover the area where we historically have had the most lightning-caused fires.
The sensors are still being fine-tuned and are designed to identify High-Reliability Lightning (HRL).
About the system and data
- The sensors detect and map strikes that have enough intensity and ground contact to have high potential to ignite a wildfire.
- The sensors use machine learning and AI to classify lightning strikes into the HRL category.
- The lightning location data is much more accurate than the lightning detection network we have had access to for years and locates the strike to within 100 feet. The NIFC system was only accurate within half a mile.
- The model that the software uses was “trained” using about 20 years worth of fire data we provided, including the weather conditions that were in place when the SCFC responded to lighting-caused fires.
- The sensors detect lightning strikes of differing intensities, but for the pilot project, only HRL strikes are available through the dashboard. I have asked if we can access all lightning strikes so we can use the data to rule out lighting as a cause when conducting origin and cause investigations, but currently that is outside of the scope of the research project.
- Accuracy of the strike location and intensity is most accurate where multiple sensors detect the same strike and can cross-reference the location, so strikes at the edge of a sensor’s range may be less accurately located.
Logging in
- The South Carolina HRL Dashboard is currently available through the SCFC ArcGIS portal. You will need to login to the portal and find the HRL Dashboard (SCFC ArcGIS->Groups->FNN South Carolina HRL Dashboard)
- This dashboard is updated regularly, and it displays HRL strikes within the last hour, last 24 hours, last 7 days and more.
- There are some National Fire Danger Rating System/weather indicators on the left side of the dashboard. We are still populating those, but it will allow us to set parameters to see what the ratings were when lightning-caused fires occurred.
- The FNN team is setting up daily emails to SCFC pilots that will include a .pdf of overnight HRL strikes that they can pull up in Foreflight.
- Once the data is in, pilots can see the recent strikes within the app as they fly detection so they can target detection flights.
- Once we verify that the daily emails are being sent, Chief Pilot Sam Anderson will work with our pilots to make sure they know how to import the data into Foreflight.
Once we have all the sensors calibrated and stabilized, this will be a great tool, and we will work with the FNN to expand the coverage if the data is reliable and beneficial.