Telephone: ++31 70 3264221 ext. 210Telefax: ++3 1 70 3280961 E-Mail: Jan.S.de.Vries@fel.tno.nl INTRODUCFION Autonomous fire detection systems may help to reduce hazards resulting from large wildfires. In many situations wildfires start in the duff below trees and shrubs, which are hidden from direct view by ground based sensors mounted on poles overlooking forests and wild lands. Mid-and thermal infrared measurements only detect wildfires when the fire has reached the tree crowns, and, by then, it has developed into a large wildfire. Therefore, the early discovery of wildfires using ground based, autonomous sensors should preferably be perfonned by detecting smoke clouds rather than heat, since smoke is earlier detectable than the fire itself as a result of convection above the fire. 0-8194-1 204-X/93/$6.00 Downloaded From: http://proceedings.spiedigitallibrary.org/ on 05/16/2015 Terms of Use: http://spiedl.org/terms
Autonomous wildfire detection systems may help to reduce hazards resulting from large wildiand fires. In many situations wildfires start in the duff below trees and shrubs, which are hidden from direct view by groundbased sensors overlooking forests and wildiands. Mid-and thermal infrared measurements only detect wildfires when the fire has become a crownfire, and, by then, it usually has developed into a large wildfire. Therefore, the early discovery of wildfires using groundbased, autonomous sensors should be performed by detecting smoke clouds rather than the heat of the fire, since smoke becomes earlier visible above the trees as a result of convection than the heat of the fire.A demonstration sensor is being developed to show the feasibility of an affordable system for autonomous wildiand fire detection. The system is designed to minimize false alarms by simultaneously analyzing the temporal, spatial and spectral information in the acquired imagery. The groundbased sensor will be horizon scanning and will employ linear CCD's for better contrast sensitivity in three different spectral bands. Figure 1.Visible image of a small wildfire in the red wavelength band. The fire is at a range of 1500 m.
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