 SmartPhone & Tablet technologies for Firefighters
InfraRed + Tactical GIS in the cockpit and hands of firefighters
Overview
Moving-map topos with symbolized fire GIS (Geographic Information System from NIFC) are getting easier both in the air and on the ground. For years Tablet PCs have brought AirborneGIS to Air Attacks, and now iPhone/iPad & Android SmartPhones/Pad have free offline moving-map topos. (OTS) DeLorme & MapTech running on Windows is still the best airborne option in 2011. Detailed topos with symbolized GIS is displayed in 3D or 2D as you fly over it, and airborne drawings of the fire perimeter can be transmitted near realtime. Offline on the ground, Avenza and Gaia have great apps for showing moving-map GIS when you can't see the forest for the trees. FAIRGIS (Fire Attack IR+GIS) c ouples AirborneGIS with heads-up Infrared in the cockpit allowing Air Attacks to routinely work over smoke & at night. Systems are extremely easy to use by turning on/off with the plane. Low cost Infrared displays heads-up, and is easy to install in any airplane. Passive IR becomes another window, and is tactically more effective than sophisticated systems using gimbals. Missions are more effective overall, and s everal wildfires have been stopped sooner thanks to this low cost, easy to use technology. 2011 fire season Goal: * Bring FAIRGIS to helicopters, air-tankers and more Air Attacks * Bring moving-map topos with daily fire GIS overlays to ground firefighters * Cockpit Map showing GPS position of ground personnel in realtime News
- May 2011: New presentation slides and 59 second movie about using IR+GIS for Air Attacks. Presenting May 25th at Tactical Fire Remote Sensing Advisory Committee in Sacramento - May 2011: PDF Maps by Avenza (Apple AppStore) is looking like a possible solution for getting moving-map GIS on iPhones & iPads for ground firefighters - April 2011: Delivered GIS to 8 dozer operators and ground firefighters using Gaia GPS (Apple AppStore) on iPhones & iPads - April 2011: Teaching FAIRGIS slides: CalFire, BLM and Forest Service ATGS (Air Attack) refresher course at McClellan, San Francisco GIS geo-meetup, Where 2.0. - March 2011: Won 1st place in Silicon Valley, and two other developer awards for a SmartPhone & Tablet app that will automatically overlay fire Tactical GIS on moving-map topos. - Winter 2011: A collaborative effort between ESRI, Solstice-GIS, TriGeo and Courtney Aviation is porting AirborneGIS to iPhones, iPad and Android SmartPhones/Tablets. This app is intended to also give ground firefighters the same instant situational awareness available in the cockpit. - October 2010: AirborneGIS and/or IR flew on twenty CalFire & Fed Air Attack planes. AerialFireTech provided 90 missions in 2010 with daily symbolized fire GIS at no cost. Although there weren't too many large fires, FAIRGIS contributed significantly to finding & stopping several unknown spotfires obscured by smoke. Equipped planes could routinely operate over smoke and darkness.
- 2010 Whitepaper: Fire Attack IR+GIS (FAIRGIS) Comments to mszaller@yahoo.com
* Articles published in Spring 2010:
- Widlfire Magazine: High Flying Intel
- DeLorme Newsletter: XMap at work ni Airborne Wildfire Management
How-to Proceed:
- GIS on the ground with your own iPhone/iPad: Download free apps to your Apple or Android SmartPhone or Tablet - GIS in the Air: Windows apps give more options for now, and can be purchased from DeLorme (XMap) or MyTopo/MapTech (TNG: Terrain Navigator Pro) - Air Attacks should request "InfraRed" (its free) on their CWN (Call When Needed) orders - Aircraft operators should follow the instructions below - installation is inexpensive and realatively easy - GIS on the public NFIC server can be overlaid by Air Attacks, ask your GIS team, or call me to help
DIY Instructions:
Detailed situational awareness and names can quickly earn the respect of locals. Clam-shell Laptops should not be used in the cockpit, but rather Tablet PCs. Use either DeLorme Topo USA or DeLorme XMap 7 Pro (requires Win7 Pro). They are easy to use and connect to Bluetooth wireless or USB wired GPS for moving-map.
 GIS overlays on Windows Moving-Map ToposGIS teams on large fires normally produce map data that helps Air Attacks. Fire lines, hot spots, burn out, dozer & hand lines, division breaks, drop points, dip sites and more overlays are all oriented on the moving topos with instant situational awareness and ability to zoom in - out. This will allow you to do some things previously not possible, in addition to the obvious of quickly finding everything. DeLorme XMap imports ESRI .shp files directly one by one. DeLorme Topo and Maptech require the GIS team to first create special .gpx files.
Free app downloads allow for offline moving map topos. Tactical GIS app is being developed for fire fighters. Anyone with a GPS enable SmartPhone can show their realtime GPS position on each others map. On any of the Windows based Topo packages the DRAW function will allow an ATGS to draw fire perimeters that can be transmitted to the ground, or handed off once back on the ground. A right click will tell you the acreage. Fire perimeters can be saved as .kml fires so that anyone with Google Earth installed will see the perimeter
Latitude, who makes many of the AFF (Automated Flight Following) boxes, already installed in fire aircraft, has written a Windows utility to transfer fire maps from the cockpit to the ground. Maps transmits as Google Earth attachments through email to a group list. Perimeter maps can transmit within a minute directly to anyone or everyone on the IC team, GIS and dispatch. Even frontline firefighters can receive them on an iPhone or SmartPhone running Google Earth.
 Infrared: Long heralded as breakthrough technology for fire fighting, good IR cameras have become so inexpensive that here is no reason not to install one on every Air Attack plane. Installation & FAA certification are also easy, and so is usage. Fixed mounted side looking infrared (SLIR) sees through the smoke and dark. SLIR requires no training or 3rd person board. It is so easy that on the first flight both the Air Attack and pilot will become completely functional.
HD video (1920x1080) will capture full motion continuously. The movies are so hi-res, that you can "snapshot" any frame and it becomes a standalone hi-res 2 megapixel photo. Movies can be used for debriefing, training, incident command and mapping out the whole fire. Starting at around $500 you can point it out the window using a suction mount.
This content is all provided as a free service by the community of aerial fire fighters. Questions or discussion should be posted to AerialFireTech Discussion Group . We might be out flying, especially during fire season, so participants will get back to as soon as possible.
Updated October 13, 2010
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