Patent ID: 7123154

Claim:
An apparatus for detecting a presence of at least one of a wildfire and an electrical arc burning proximate to Earth's surface, said wildfire and said electrical arc being characterized by a wavelength that is emitted by the wildfire and electrical arc and which transmits in a first way at the Earth's surface as a result of a first ratio of oxygen compounds proximate to the surface of the Earth, but which wavelength transmits in a second way in Earth's stratosphere based on a second different ratio of oxygen compounds present in Earth's stratosphere wherein said wildfire and said electrical arc are characterized by emission of ultraviolet (UV) radiation at said detection wavelength, said apparatus comprising: a detection arrangement disposed such that said wavelength travels from said wildfire to the detection arrangement in the presence of said first ratio of said oxygen compounds and so that sunlight arriving at said detection arrangement travels through Earth's stratosphere so as to subject the sunlight to said second ratio of oxygen compounds in a way which attenuates content of the detection wavelength in the sunlight, said detection arrangement being configured to respond at the detection wavelength so as to enhance a detection response to the wildfire while attenuating the detection response to the wavelength to sunlight based on said first and second ratios of said oxygen compounds and said detection arrangement includes: a Geiger-Mueller tube (GM tube), which GM tube exhibits a given response at a maximum rated bias voltage when exposed to said detection wavelength as well as when concurrently exposed to a plurality of extraneous noise sources for use in generating a pulse output; a driver for operation said GM tube in a way which produces a modified response of the GM tube, thereby increasing sensitivity of the GM tube over said given response with respect to said detection wavelength as well as with respect to the plurality of extraneous noise sources so as to increase a relative number of pulses in the pulse output responsive to the detection wavelength and responsive to the extraneous noise sources, as compared to operating said GM tube at the maximum rated bias voltage; a processing circuit for generating an intermediate output responsive to said pulse output for use in tracking a trend in the pulse output, which trend is generally responsive to the presence of a least one of said wildfire and said electrical arc, irrespective of the increase in the relative number of pulses in the pulse output that are responsive to said extraneous sources; and an alarm apparatus for producing an alarm signal based on a predetermined characteristic of said intermediate output.