Recent Changes to the Hazard Mapping System

The Hazard Mapping System (HMS) was developed in 2001 by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s (NOAA) National Environmental Satellite and Data Information Service (NESDIS) as an interactive tool to identify fires and the smoke emissions they produce over North America in an operational environment. The system utilizes 2 geostationary and 5 polar orbiting environmental satellites. Automated fire detection algorithms are employed for each of the sensors. Analysts apply quality control procedures for the automated fire detections by eliminating those that are deemed to be false and adding hotspots that the algorithms have not detected via a thorough examination of the satellite imagery. Areas of smoke are outlined by the analyst using animated visible channel imagery. A quantitative assessment of the smoke concentration is not performed at this time. However, integration of automated aerosol and smoke products into the HMS, such as the GOES Aerosol and Smoke Product (GASP) and the MODIS aerosol product in early 2006 and the aerosol product from the Ozone Monitoring Instrument (OMI) later in 2006 are expected to aid in providing smoke concentrations and identifying areas of smoke. HMS analysts denote fires that are producing smoke emissions. These fire locations are used as input to the HYbrid Single-Particle Lagrangian Integrated Trajectory (HYSPLIT) model. In 2005 the model was upgraded to adjust emission rates based on the Blue Skies framework as opposed to using a constant emission rate. Future improvements include specification of fire duration and start/end time of emissions. It is expected that these enhancements will increase the accuracy of the total amount of emissions and their dispersion.