Presently, problems of fires in wooded areas have become an issue of global importance and present a grave concern. Recent wildfires in forests and national parks throughout the world have caused huge material, ecological and human losses and highlighted the need for improved fire detection and control methods. By fires we understand forest, peat, steppe fire, fire in residential areas as well as gas and oil fire. Nowadays fires can be monitored in following ways:
I. Satellite monitoring;
II. Aviation forest protection ;
III. Traditional methods of instrumental and visual control;
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Satellite Monitoring is indispensable on the global scale and on vast areas, but it also has drawbacks, especially for small forest tracts. Additionally,
- It has low promptitude of the monitoring process itself and weak efficiency of data transfer.
- A relatively large fire seat is necessary for satellite fire detection.
- Satellite monitoring has also weak efficiency in case of limited visibility due to heavy clouds and smoke;
- Creation and operation of centers for data collecting, processing and storage as well as operators training are expensive.
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Common tool means of forest fire monitoring are mostly used for Aviation Forest Protection. Flying machines are usually supplied with thermal sensors of infrared and microwave range. So the main emphasis will be done on development of traditional detection devices which are then installed on the flying machines. Besides, aviation monitoring becomes more costly as a result of continuously rising fuel prices. Aviation monitoring is also affected by weather (fog, strong wind, rain etc). Apart from this, in Europe where many forests belong to private owners, not everyone can afford such type of monitoring.
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Presently, mostly traditional methods of instrumental and visual fire detection are used, because those can be utilized by small forest owners and at a lower cost. Various devices can be mounted on towers, hills etc. These are various sensors, flame registers, thermal imagers, video cameras etc. But, most fire detection is still trusted to lookout personnel in remotely placed towers or other means of human observation. The obvious drawbacks of leaving such large areas of territory to merely human observation are those of late detection, false alarms and the inability to rapidly deploy fire fighting personnel along the predicted fire front, thereby undermining the fire fighters’ efficiency.
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Therefore, it would be greatly advantageous to provide a system which can remotely monitor forest and rapidly detect and report the presence of forest fires as well as forecast the expected growth pattern of forest fire for fire fighting personnel optimal deployment.
Together with the Belorussian Institute of Applied Physical problems (Laboratory Head Valery Shamal) MV Group has developed the infrared Forest Fire Search System “Golden eye” (FFSS), which is an autonomous and remote controlled device for round-the-clock fire detection and ecological monitoring in any weather condition. It ensures automatic surveillance and early detection of relatively small fires, which allows effective preventative measures at initial stages of burning. This early detection minimizes economic losses caused by fire and prevents emergency situations.
