ENHANCEMENTS TO THE GLOBAL WILDFIRE FIRE INFORMATION SYSTEM: FIRE DANGER RATING AND APPLICATIONS IN INDONESIA

OUR PROPOSAL FALLS UNDER GEO WORK PROGRAMME ELEMENT 3.8 THE GLOBAL WILDFIRE INFORMATION SYSTEM (GWIS) AND HAS TWO PARTS TO 1) PROVIDE ADDITIONAL FIRE WEATHER DATA TO THE GLOBAL WILDFIRE INFORMATION SYSTEM (GWIS) AND 2) WORK WITH PARTNERS IN INDONESIA IN APPLYING FIRE WEATHER DATA IN MANAGING THE COUNTRY S SERIOUS FIRE AND HAZE PROBLEM. PART 1: GWIS ENHANCEMENTS AS PART OF THE NASA PRECIPITATION MEASUREMENTS SCIENCE TEAM WE PRODUCE THE GLOBAL FIRE WEATHER DATABASE (GFWED) BASED ON THE FIRE WEATHER INDEX (FWI) SYSTEM. THE FWI SYSTEM IS THE MOST WIDELY USED FIRE DANGER RATING SYSTEM IN THE WORLD DUE TO ITS MODEST WEATHER INPUT REQUIREMENTS AND ITS FLEXIBILITY FOR DIFFERENT FIRE ENVIRONMENTS. HISTORICAL GFWED DATA CONSISTS OF 8 DIFFERENT GLOBAL FWI VERSIONS EACH BASED ON DIFFERENT PRECIPITATION DATA. IT IS THE ONLY COMMUNITY RESOURCE OF ITS KIND AND IS PUBLICLY AVAILABLE THROUGH THE NASA GISS WEBSITE. AS OF 2016 THERE ARE NOW VERSIONS BASED ON GPCP TRMM AND IMERG PRECIPITATION REPRESENTING A MAJOR ADVANCE IN THE USE OF EARTH OBSERVATIONS TO QUANTIFY THE METEOROLOGICAL ASPECTS OF FIRE RISK. THERE ARE THREE NEAR-REAL-TIME GFWED VERSIONS EACH BASED ON LOWER-LATENCY PRECIPITATION INPUTS. WE PROPOSE DEVELOP 10-DAY GLOBAL FWI FORECASTS INTEGRATE ALL GFWED DATA INTO GWIS AND PARTICIPATE IN SHORT-TERM FORECAST SKILL EVALUATION WITH THE JRC. THE PROVISION OF GFWED DATA WILL INCREASE THE NUMBER OF REAL-TIME GWIS FWI DATASETS FROM ONE TO FOUR INCREASE THE NUMBER OF HISTORICAL GWIS FWI DATASETS FROM ONE TO EIGHT AND ADD AN ADDITIONAL 10-DAY FWI FORECASTS TO COMPLEMENT THE PLANNED SINGLE-MODEL GWIS FORECASTS. THIS COMPONENT OF OUR PROPOSED CORRESPONDS TO THE LOT 1 REQUIREMENTS OF THE JRC S 2017 TO 2020 GWIS DEVELOPMENT PLAN AND WILL BE DONE IN CLOSE COLLABORATION WITH THE JRC AND ITS PARTNERS. PART 2: GWIS APPLICATIONS IN INDONESIA THE FWI SYSTEM WAS ESTABLISHED AS INDONESIA S FIRE DANGER RATING SYSTEM IN 2002 AND IS OPERATED BY THE INDONESIAN AGENCY FOR METEOROLOGY CLIMATOLOGY AND GEOPHYSICS (BADAN METEOROLOGI KLIMATOLOGI DAN GEOFISIKA BMKG). BMKG ACTS IN A DATA PROVISION ROLE WITH USERS RANGING FROM THE INDONESIAN MINISTRY OF ENVIRONMENT AND FORESTRY TO THE PRESIDENT S OFFICE. THE FWI SYSTEM AT BMKG IS CURRENTLY BASED ON WEATHER INPUTS FROM ITS SYNOPTIC STATION NETWORK WHICH IS SPARSE IN MANY OF THE FIRE PRONE REGIONS. THIS LIMITS THE ABILITY OF LOCAL AGENCIES TO ACCURATELY DISTINGUISH BETWEEN REGIONS OF LOW AND SEVERE FIRE DANGER. GWIS FIRE DANGER PRODUCTS INCLUDING OUR IMERG-BASED FIRE DANGER ESTIMATES THEREFORE PROVIDE THE OPPORTUNITY FOR A MAJOR ADVANCE IN THE QUALITY OF FIRE DANGER PRODUCTS AND ULTIMATELY TO THE PREVENTION OF INDONESIA S DISASTER-SCALE FIRE AND HAZE EPISODES SUCH AS THAT IN 2015. WE PROPOSE TO WORK COLLABORATIVELY WITH BMKG TO DEVELOP IMERG-BASED FWI INFORMATION AND WITH THE INDONESIA MINISTRY OF ENVIRONMENT AND FORESTRY IN ADVANCING FWI-BASED FIRE MANAGEMENT THROUGH TRAINING AND OUTREACH ACTIVITIES.