About AFIS

The Advanced Fire Information System (AFIS) is the first near real time operational satellite fire monitoring system of its kind in Africa. The main aim of AFIS is to provide information regarding the prediction, detection and assessment of fires using Remote Sensing and GIS technology through an automated near real time Web GIS portal. AFIS forms part of the Wide Area Monitoring Information System (WAMIS) which aims to deliver relevant sensor based information (sensor web) to the local and regional user community in support of effective decision-making in the monitoring of the Southern African environment.

Limitations in satellite technology forced Fire Information Systems to largely focus on the global change research community where non real time fire frequency and distribution data could be utilized. In 2002 damages to infrastructure and loss of grazing due to wild land fires in South Africa were estimated to be in the region of $ 50 million. An urgent need was identified to develop a satellite based information system that could provide information on the frequency and distribution of fires over time for the change detection research community but also provide a near real time tool that could provide early detection of fires to fire managers.

The South African National Department of Agriculture provided seed funding to upgrade the Satellite Applications Centre facilities to receive and process Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectro-radiometer imagery. In 1999 and 2002 NASA launched the Terra and Aqua satellites, which both carries MODIS. These sensors scan the earth eight times a day in 36 spectral bands including a mid infra red band dedicated to fire detection. Coupled with MODIS data, Meteosat Second Generation (MSG) geostationary satellite data are providing fire location information every 15 minutes feeding AFIS to with continuous fire detections day and night

AFIS has been developed in collaboration with the University of Maryland and NASA's Earth Observation Systems. The main funding for the development and implementation of AFIS came from South Africa's biggest power company - ESKOM. Wild land fires underneath power lines can cause flash overs which severely affect industries. electricity supply. ESKOM implemented AFIS in June 2004, scanning a buffer of 5 km along all transmission lines searching for any fire hot spots at 15 minute time intervals. With the detection a of a fire, email and SMS text messages is created and send to relevant authorities.

Contact Details:

Mr Andrew Terhorst
EO Manager
CSIR SAC
ATerhorst@csir.co.za
+27 12 3345110

Mr Philip Frost
CSIR SAC
pfrost@csir.co.za
+27 12 3345126

Mr Hein Vosloo
ESKOM TSI
VoslooHF@eskom.co.za