Overall, there is room for a lot of improvement in the science and technology for fire weather operations. This was very well explained in OFCM and NOAA SAB documentation from 2008-2009. There had been an examination of where the community needs to go in terms of observations, use of satellite technology, data assimilation, modeling techniques for fire weather and behavior, and use of intelligence tools such as GIS.
Observations: There has long been a need for improved representation of environmental conditions at the surface level, throughout the planetary boundary level, and up to levels above 10,000 feet AGL. RAWS observations have been used for many years, along with mesonet data and ASOS stations, but they do not provide the areal coverage at the spatial and temporal resolution to identify wind, temperature and humidity conditions especially across the western US. Many agencies and academia are looking into surface sensors that can be placed in and near fires. There has also been an improvement in use of UAS/UxS for firefighting, as seen recently with Predator UAS. These systems will help provide profiles of temperature and other parameters for IMETs, as well as be able to see fire activity below clouds. There are restrictions to the use of them due to potential collisions with manned aircraft but many are proving their viability. IMETs are using new and revised upper air systems to measure conditions up to 25,000 feet.
Satellite Technology: There have been many improvements in the use of satellite technology since 2005. This includes the use of polar orbiters and geostationary birds. The University of Maryland, University of Wisconsin and NESDIS have been heavily involved in preparing IMETs in the use of NPOESS (VIIRS) and GOES (ABI) to define hot spots both in relation to intensity and coverage. Quite often meteorologists from NWS and USFS GACCs will notice hot spots before emergency managers, often with the use of surface cameras. The exact location and characteristization of these hot spots is very important to simulations provided by fire behavior models.
Data Assimilation: NOAA and USFS are looking at new ways to inject data of varying formats into preprocessing environments. This is a challenge but must be done due to need for accurate modeling of atmosphere near fires and well above fires.
Modeling Techniques: Ever since the 1970s scientists in the private and public sectors have been trying to model how fires affect the atmosphere and how the atmosphere impacts fires. There are models being developed at NCAR and within USFS (California for example with Firebuster). The scales at which fires occur makes it difficult to predict fire behavior over even a 6 hour period.
