Computing forest fires aerial suppression effectiveness by IR monitoring

This paper describes the methodology developed to analyse IR images obtained during the aerial suppression experiments that were conducted in Ngarkat Conservation Park, South Australia, on 3–5 March 2008. This methodology has been specifically developed in order to extract the maximum information from the IR images taken from an observing helicopter, in those tests where chemical suppressants are applied directly on the fire, although it could eventually be applied to other similar situations. The information obtained after applying this methodology allows quantifying the aerial suppression effectiveness.