Objectives

The overall objectives of this project are two. Firstly, to investigate holdover times (i.e., the time between lightning-induced fire ignition and fire detection) of lightning-caused fires. Secondly, to develop a new method to match lightning events and wildfires.

Holdover time database

We will collect data on lightning fires from different sources to create an open global-scale database containing holdover times. The goal is to use this database to understand better the distributions of holdover time in lightning fires.

Method to evaluate the probability of lightning causing wildfires

The goal is to help answer two common questions related to lightning fires: was a wildfire caused by lightning? and if so, which exact lightning event ignited the fire? We will develop a new probabilistic method to link lightning and wildfire data. The idea is to use data from lightning location systems to calculate probabilities of lightning striking specific areas. These spatial probabilities will be combined with temporal probabilities of reaching specific holdover times to evaluate the probability of a specific lightning igniting a certain fire.