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Laser spots forest fires and raises the alarm
A spectrometer mounted at the top of a tower in a Portuguese forest is helping to spot forest fires before they take hold. In Hall B2 at Laser 2007, Klaas Otten of Avantes showed me the company’s Forest Fire Finder, a self-contained detector and tracking system which removes the need for constant human observation.
The device consists of an Avaspec-2048-USB2 spectrometer attached to a video camera and a telescope, mounted alongside a control unit, a communications system and weather monitoring apparatus. The telescope and camera constantly scan 320 degrees of the horizon while the spectrometer analyses the light from the telescope, collecting spectra from up to 15 kilometers away. When it detects the smoke from a fire, the communication system sends an alert to the local operations center by SMS, GSM and over the internet, telling them the location and the weather conditions. It even transmits images of the fire, so the fire fighters know what awaits them when they arrive.
The spectrometer employed is a standard Avaspec machine, and there’s nothing revolutionary about using it to detect atmospheric smoke and fumes, but the complete stand-alone system employed in Portugal is a novel implementation which has been well received by the local authorities. With little modification the system could be installed in other forested areas around the world, allowing a relatively simple laser system to play a big part in saving lives and protecting property.
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