NOAA-Developed Technology Used to Assist Firefighters of California Wildfires
A meteorological workstation developed by scientists at NOAA's Earth System Research Laboratory (ESRL) is being used by the National Weather Service's (NWS) Incident Meteorologists (IMETs) deployed to the devastating wildfires in California. Considered key members of the fire fighting team, IMETs are using the FX-Net system, developed by ESRL, as their primary means of getting weather information to the fire Incident Commanders and emergency managers working on the fires.
FX-Net is a field-deployable system that has access to the same data sets available to other NWS forecasters and offers forecasters flexibility in manipulating the data to meet specific, localized needs. Forecasters can run animation, toggle to overlay data sets, zoom and swap display windows, add observational data, and display specific forecast models necessary to forecast localized weather as needed by firefighters, emergency managers, and others.
NOAA researchers foster understanding of Earth system dynamics and develop technology to enable forecasters to make more timely and accurate forecasts, used routinely in forecast offices, as well as for short-term uses like aviation forecasting and fire weather. Ongoing work on FX-Net supports NOAA's goal to provide weather and water information in service to society.
Contact information
Name: Sher Schranz
Tel: 303-497-7254
Sher.Schranz@noaa.gov