Integration of Surface Weather Observations withMODIS Imagery for Fire Weather Applications

Mike Splitt, Brian Olsen,John Horel, Judy Pechmann

NOAA Cooperative Institute forRegional PredictionUniversity of Utah

Florida Active Fire Map. 25 Mar. 2004

Outline Overview of ROMAN

Goals and ApplicationsSampling of ROMAN data and displays

MODIS Applications within ROMAN Documentation & Summary

ROMAN Goals Real-Time Observation Monitor and Analysis Network Provide real-time weather data around the nation to

meteorologists and land managers Display data in fast-loading formats tailored to the

wildland fire community and accessible to: Top-level managers using high speed networks Fire-behavior analysts and IMETs in the field over slow dial-

up connections

San Diego Tribune. 28 Oct. 2003

ROMAN Development Software developed at University

of Utah to assist entire fire weather community to obtain access to current surface weather information

Data stored in MySQL database Support for development of

ROMAN from BLM and NWS Tools designed for fire weather

applications can be used for many other purposes

Tested during 2002 and 2003 summer fire seasons

Operational for 2004 summer fire season

Geographic Area Coordination Centers

MesoWest: lifeblood of ROMAN

MesoWest: Cooperative sharing of real-time surface weather data around the nation

Application of “nontraditional” data in operational meteorology (ski areas, DOTs)

Real-time and retrospective access to weather information through state-of-the-art MySQL database

ADAS analyses over the West of current temperature, wind, and moisture based on surface observations

http://www.met.utah.edu/mesowest Horel et al. (2002) Bull. Amer. Meteor. Soc.

2003 Fire Locations (Red); ROMAN stations (Grey)

Fire locations provided by Remote Sensing Applications Center from MODIS imagery

Applications of ROMAN Fire behavior analysts, fire management officers, GACC

meteorologists: Monitor weather conditions for strategic and tactical decision

making Determine impacts of weather on fire behavior and fire fighting

resources NWS meteorologists at WFOs

Monitor conditions within County Warning Areas, issue spot fire and general forecasts, verifying forecasts

NWS Incident Meteorologists Monitor weather conditions in vicinity of major wildland fires

Current ROMAN Web Portal: http://www.met.utah.edu/roman

States

States

Top-Level Organization

GACCsCWAs

FWZs

MODIS regions

ROMAN Structured by

GACC Predictive Service Areas NWS CWA Forecast Zones NWS Fire Weather Zones Counties within States

Intuitive, easily navigable interface Clickable maps Station Weather Weather Summary Trend Monitor Weather Monitor 5 Day Temp/RH Summary Precip Summary/Monitor Weather Near Fires Search by zip code, geographic

locationTriangles: RAWS

Major data providers: NWS/FAA; SNOTEL; RAWS

Sample of Data Access: Search by: maps (state, CWAs, GACCs, etc.)

Map Based Applications in ROMAN Powered by MapServer [ an OpenSource development

environment for building spatially enabled Internet applications.]

Or, Powered by IDL (Interactive Display Language, RSI) Imported data:

ROMAN database Shapefiles ( e.g. fire weather zones) RASTER files (e.g. GeoTIFF topography)

Surface Weather Data Plot

Shaded Relief from the National Atlas of the United States (GeoTIFF Format)

ROMAN MODIS Applications Active Fire Maps (Operational)

Maps (jpeg files) provided by Remote Sensing Applications Center

IDL based application produces station locations maps (static) MODIS Land Use (Demo)

MapServer Based (dynamic) 30+ tiles over North America

MODIS Leaf Area Index (Demo) MapServer Based (dynamic)

MODIS Active Fire Maps

October 29October 31

Mapserver Based Applications Allows for Dynamic

Integration of MODIS data sets and Weather GIS layering Querying capabilities

NOAA Coast Watch MODIS SST Demo

MODIS Land Products Data

Data Downloaded from EOS Data Gateway in HDF format.

Files converted to GeoTIFF format using HEG (HDF-EOS to GeoTIFF converter)

Pixel values converted to RGB values within MapServer Scripts.

MODIS Based Land Cover

The Land Cover Parameter recognizes 17 categories of land cover following the International Geosphere-Biosphere Program (IGBP) scheme.

MODIS/Terra Land Cover Type 96-Day Global 1km

Provides context to observations.

GACC boundaries, land cover and weather

Zoom in, add more networks and changeChange boundaries

MODIS Based Land Cover

NWS Fire Wx Zones, land cover and weather

The Land Cover Parameter recognizes 17 categories of land cover following the International Geosphere-Biosphere Program (IGBP) scheme.

MODIS/Terra Land Cover Type 96-Day Global 1km

Provides context to observations.

MODIS Based Land Cover Addition of “latest” fire

detects from NOAA's MODIS Near Real Time Processing System Shapefile format

modislatest24hr.shp Updated every 15 minutes, and

contain detcts from the past 24 hours.

Data obtained from NOAA/NESDIS/SSD Fire Products Page.

Land Cover Type with Added GIS Layer (fire detects)

MODIS Leaf Area Index

1km LAI Pixel value

proportional to LAI. Converted to green shading within MapServer.

Other MODIS Data Sets of Interest

Thermal Anomalies/Fires Vegetation Indices Net Primary Vegetation Production

Documentation ROMAN:

Horel et al. (2004) Submitted to International Journal of Wildland Fire. Jan. 2004

Text: http://www.met.utah.edu/jhorel/homepages/jhorel/ROMAN_text.pdf

Figures: http://www.met.utah.edu/jhorel/homepages/jhorel/ROMAN_fig.pdf

Horel et al. (2004) IIPS Conference

On-line help: http://www.met.utah.edu/droman/help

MesoWest: Horel et al. (2002) Bull. Amer. Meteor. Soc. February 2002

Summary ROMAN under development for use by weather

professionals and the public Existing web resources can be used for many GIS

applications with access to both real-time and archival information. MODIS use evolving.

http://www.met.utah.edu/droman will continue as a testbed and ROMAN backup

Operational ROMAN will be located at http://roman.boi.noaa.gov

Feedback: mesowest@met.utah.edu