As a result of the project, two technologies are ready to help in the fight against forest fires:

  • A method for the early detection of forest fires by weather radars
  • A management system based on TETRA and Android for the real time geolocation of firefighting resources.

The method for the early detection of forest fires has been implemented in three different radars, the Cuntis radar operated by Meteogalicia in the Galician region and the Arouca and Coruche radars operated by IPMA in Portugal. The method can be implemented  in the vast majority of current weather radars in Europe either if they are S- or C-band and for klystron as well as for magnetron based radars.

The core of the method for the early detection of forest fires, the algorithm for the measurement of the tropospheric refractivity from weather radar phase data, has interesting and important applications in the nowcasting of advection phenomena related to severe weather events.

The coordination and geolocation support system developed within the LifeTEC project based in both TETRA and Android technologies allows to obtain and display the coordinates of a full team of firefighters on an Android. The system can rely on TETRA network infrastructure to achieve Trunked Mode Operation. This allows the communication between the team and the control room. Otherwise, it can work without any element other than the handheld terminals operating in Direct Mode Operation and the Android device. This last mode of operation allows the firefighting teams to remain connected in out-of-coverage environments, effectively providing information within the team that is useful for coordination when the control room cannot be reached. The system has been tested by the firefighters of the Consorcio Contraincendios y Salvamento de Deza-Tabeirós during the summer campaigns in 2019, 2020 and 2021.

The systems are ready to be operated. If you need more information or you are interested in testing any of them:

CONTACT US at lifetec@uvigo.es

Additional information:

M. Garcia Sanchez, I. Cuinas, L. A. Lopez-Valcarcel, M. Riobo Prieto and I. E. Perez, “Level Variability of Radio Signals Propagating Through Fire: Experimental Measurements and Results.,” in IEEE Antennas and Propagation Magazine, doi: 10.1109/MAP.2021.3110478

V. Santalla del Rio; R. Nocelo-López; M. Vera-Isasa; M. García-Sánchez; I. Cuiñas; A. Vazquez-Alejos; P. Torio; E. Lorenzo, “Forest Fire Detection with Weather Radars,” 2018 2nd URSI Atlantic Radio Science Meeting (AT-RASC), 2018, pp. 1-1, doi: 10.23919/URSI-AT-RASC.2018.8471621.

IEEE AP-S/URSI 2020. Montreal, QC, Canada. 5-10 july, 2020

L. A. López Valcárcel and M. G. Sánchez, “TETRA Coverage Assessment by Using Position Messages,” 2020 IEEE International Symposium on Antennas and Propagation and North American Radio Science Meeting, 2020, pp. 1129-1130, doi: 10.1109/IEEECONF35879.2020.9330475.

B. Sánchez-Rama, R. Nocelo López and V. Santalla del Río, “Statistical Characterization of Signals Backscattered from Stationary Ground Targets for Radar Refractivity Estimation,” 2021 IEEE International Symposium on Antennas and Propagation and USNC-URSI Radio Science Meeting (APS/URSI), Marina Bay Sands. Singapur. 4-10 dec. 2021, pp. 1359-1360, doi: 10.1109/APS/URSI47566.2021.9703950.

B. Sánchez-Rama, R. Nocelo López and V. Santalla del Río, “Radar-Based Refractivity Estimation: A New Calibration Approach Relying on Reanalysis Data”, 16th European Conference on Antennas and Propagation 27 March-01 April 2022, Madrid. Spain.

N. López , B. Sánchez-Rama, V, Santalla del Río, S. Barbosa, P. Narciso, R. Pérez-Santalla, A. Pettazzi, P. Pinto, S. Salsón, T. Viegas, “Refractivity and Refractivity Gradient Estimation From Radar Phase Data: A Least Squares Based Approach” IEEE Transactions on Geoscience and Remote Sensing, vol. 61, pp. 1-14, 2023, Art no. 5103214, 10.1109/TGRS.2023.3255002.

Sánchez-Rama, R. Nocelo López, V. Santalla del Río and T. Darlington, “Radar-Based Refractivity Maps Using Geostatistical Interpolation”, IEEE Geoscience and Remote Sensing Letters, vol. 20, pp. 1-5, 2023, Art no. 3509205, 10.1109/LGRS.2023.3328499.

Rubén Nocelo López, Verónica Santalla del Rio, and Brais Sánchez-Rama. “Refractivity Observations from Radar Phase Measurements: The 22 May 2002 Dryline Case during IHOP Project”, Atmosphere 2024, 15(1), 10.3390/atmos15010033

L. A. López-Valcárcel, M. G. Sánchez and E. Costa-Montenegro, “LifeTEC: A Compact and Economic System for In-the-Field Management of Firefighting Services Through TETRA,” in IEEE Transactions on Technology and Society, vol. 4, no. 4, pp. 334-342, Dec. 2023, doi: 10.1109/TTS.2023.3336963