HI-RISE—Hazardous Incident Rapid In-Flight Support Effort: Use of asynoptic upper-air data to improve weather forecasts at wildland fires and other hazardous incidents

It is difficult to overstate the value of upper-air data in generating forecasts for wildland fires, controlled burns or hazardous material (HAZMAT) incidents. Nevertheless, representative, area-specific data are often difficult to obtain given the coarse spatial and temporal resolution of the synoptic observation network. Therefore, routine access to real-time local upper-air observations would significantly improve weather forecasts for such incidents.

Adapting the Forecast Systems Laboratory's (FSL) aircraft data information concept to the incident scale provides a viable solution to this problem. FSL uses the term ACARS or TAMDAR in reference to upper-air weather data collected from sensors installed aboard commercial aircraft. This data includes pressure, temperature, humidity, wind speed and wind direction. FSL then ingests this data as input for numerical weather prediction models. The data can also be used in real-time by operational meteorologists.

Today at large fires, the Incident Command Team (ICT) already deploys aviation assets to assist fire suppression. One or more of the fixed-wing or rotary-wing aircraft being used can now be equipped with meteorological sensing equipment. Utilizing an integrated satellite link, the data collected from these sensors can be relayed through the Internet to the on-site NWS Incident Meteorologist (IMET) and Fire Behavior Analyst (FBAN).

The HI-RISE test demonstrated the feasibility of the scenario described above. On April 21, 2005 at a controlled burn site in central Texas, upper-air data was collected and relayed in real-time from a single-engine air tanker aircraft to an on-site IMET and the servicing National Weather Service Forecast Office. This observed upper-air data was ingested into a sounding analysis program and used to evaluate and adjust the fire weather forecast. The data provided critical information to assess fire weather parameters.

The impact of an un-forecast critical fire weather element continues to be an important concern for the IMET, the FBAN, and the ICT. In the effort to mitigate that risk, this paper will detail the HI-RISE hypothesis and proposal, the technology employed, the results of the experiment, and the recommendations for more widespread deployment.