Fighting forest fires more efficiently from the air

Fighting forest fires more efficiently from the air

Friday 18 Oct 2024

Whether in Canada, California or around the Mediterranean — forest fires are becoming more frequent and, above all, more severe around the world. Especially in summer, heat, drought, and wind often turn such fires into raging infernos, and the climate crisis is certainly not helping. Researchers at the Fraunhofer Institute for High-Speed Dynamics, Ernst-Mach-Institut, EMI, and start-up CAURUS Technologies GmbH are responding to the increasing global threat. Together, they are developing an innovative extinguishing method that can be used to fight large-scale fires more efficiently from the air.

Climate change is altering the quality of forest fires, which are getting hotter and spreading faster. In Canada alone, an area of around 185,000 km² — slightly larger than the size of Greece and Switzerland combined — caught fire in 2023. Germany is also seeing its forest fire season start earlier and earlier: In dry regions such as Brandenburg, the first hectares of forest fire were reported as early as March 1 this year. Working closely with their partner CAURUS Technologies GmbH, researchers at Fraunhofer EMI are seeking to make a key contribution to fighting forest fires from the air with a new type of extinguishing method. The modular system consists of hardware and software and combines digital technology with innovative extinguishing approaches to complement conventional extinguishing methods. This project is funded by the Fraunhofer AHEAD program.

Generating a targeted water-aerosol cloud to improve the extinguishing effect

Most of the airborne firefighting technology we use today dates back to the 1970/80s. Helicopters or airplanes carrying buckets of extinguishing water fly over the burning forests. At an altitude of 40 to 50 meters, the pilots open the bottom of the bucket. However, the water is usually blown away and distributed over a large area by winds and thermals. As a result, only a small amount of the extinguishing water actually ends up in the flames.

“We are able to offer fire departments improved and more sustainable extinguishing methods and use digital control options to enhance the precision with which the extinguishing water is deployed,” explains Dr. Dirk Schaffner, a researcher at Fraunhofer EMI in Freiburg.

The project partners are also developing an opening mechanism that produces an extinguishing cloud that is significantly more efficient. This enables the pilots to release very small, fine water droplets and to position the extinguishing cloud precisely and close to the source of the fire. These factors have a decisive influence on the success of suppression. They help to quickly reduce the temperature of the fire, bringing it below the ignition point, and deprive the fire of the oxygen it needs over a wide area.

“The mechanism enables us to generate a targeted water-aerosol cloud, which is activated at a height of a few meters above or even in the flames. The water is not dispersed beforehand but held together in a bag until it is just above the fire. Almost 100 percent of the water lands directly in the flames,” describes Dr. Schaffner. The water-aerosol cloud removes the heat from the fire very quickly.

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Source & image credit: Fraunhofer

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