Weather conditions drive fire behavior, but fires also drive weather conditions. Existing wildfire models do not take into account the complex interaction between a fire and local weather conditions. Consequently, current models are restricted to a limited range of scenarios. Fire behavior is driven by local weather conditions such as winds, temperature and moisture. The RAMS model, originally developed at Colorado State University, uses data from all over the country to predict weather parameters.
RAMS then translates the information into smaller and smaller geographical areas.
The combined modeling system is the first step in predicting the actual progression and heat release of a wildfire. By investigating, understanding and modeling the fundamental principles of fire, the researchers can build models that more accurately predict wildfire behavior. Bossert said the interagency cooperation has been crucial to model development. In April 1997, Los Alamos researchers joined personnel from the refuge, Dynamac Corp., NASA, U.S. Air Force, U.S. Forest Service, National Weather Service and others for the first controlled burn. The spread and intensity of that first burn, which seared its way through fields of Florida scrub, was monitored by instruments aboard a Lear jet supplied by NASA's AMES Research Center.