Forest Fire Finder uses Avantes spectrometer

May 29, 2013

Apeldoorn, The Netherlands--To protect the Peneda-Gerês National Park in Portugal, Forest Fire Finder (FFF) systems that incorporate Avantes spectrometers are being used in concert with imagers and other optoelectronic equipment.

Gail Overton

Apeldoorn, The Netherlands--The Peneda European Network of Biogenetic Reserves, the Natura 2000 network, and PAN Parks network chose Forest Fire Finder (FFF) patented technology from NGNS that includes spectrometers from Avantes to protect its Peneda-Gerês National Park in Portugal--an area of more than 700 square kilometers. The project includes 13 FFF systems, with optical remote sensors and spectrometers (http://www.laserfocusworld.com/articles/print/volume-49/issue-05/features/spectrometers--miniature-spectrometer-designs-open-new-applicati.html) that distinguish organic smoke (http://www.laserfocusworld.com/articles/print/volume-45/issue-2/features/photonics-applied-atmospheric-monitoring-new-photonic-devices-boost-environmental-monitoring-capabilities.html) of forest fires from other sources at a distance of up to 15 km.

The FFF is a combination of spectroscopy, video, and mobile communications. When smoke from a forest fire is detected, an alarm is automatically triggered. Live images from the starting fire are sent to the authorities, in combination with the exact location and meteorological information. It includes weather stations that monitor the temperature, humidity, wind speed and direction (http://www.laserfocusworld.com/articles/print/volume-48/issue-05/features/wind-energy-gets-a-boost-from-wind-turbine-lidar.html), rainfall and a thermal camera in a critical valley in the center of the park. In case of an alarm, the FFF system provides additional information to the control centers, such as the direction of the fire or exact location if two systems detect the event, photos of the detected fire and meteorological data, which is sent to a central server. From this server, the alerts to other devices are forwarded.

The FFF incorporates an AvaSpec-ULS2048 spectrometer. Using optical spectroscopy gives this instrument the unique capability of recognizing organic smoke and distinguish it from other sources (like factory smoke). This makes the FFF technology extremely reliable and specific for forest fires. NGNS expects to launch additional projects and to drive the current projects in Brazil, Argentina, Australia and other international markets.

Avantes develops and manufacture spectrometers, light sources, software, fiber-optic cables, and accessories for usage in many OEM applications and markets, as well as in the scientific and industrial world.

SOURCE: Avantes and aicep Portugal Global; http://www.avantes.com and http://www.portugalglobal.pt/PT/PortugalNews/Paginas/NewDetail.aspx?newId=%7BF79E2AF1-4DFC-4AE7-BA74-0AA70DE70619%7D

About the Author

Gail Overton | Senior Editor (2004-2020)

Gail has more than 30 years of engineering, marketing, product management, and editorial experience in the photonics and optical communications industry. Before joining the staff at Laser Focus World in 2004, she held many product management and product marketing roles in the fiber-optics industry, most notably at Hughes (El Segundo, CA), GTE Labs (Waltham, MA), Corning (Corning, NY), Photon Kinetics (Beaverton, OR), and Newport Corporation (Irvine, CA). During her marketing career, Gail published articles in WDM Solutions and Sensors magazine and traveled internationally to conduct product and sales training. Gail received her BS degree in physics, with an emphasis in optics, from San Diego State University in San Diego, CA in May 1986.