Wildfires

Wild Fire Movie (2003 Cedar Fires in San Diego):

A wildfire, also known as a forest fire, vegetation fire, or bushfire (in Australasia), is an uncontrolled fire in wildland often caused by lightning; other common causes are human carelessness and arson. During October 2003 several wildfires ravaged San Diego County and caused the worst damage in the history of San Diego and California. The University of California, San Diego, was closed for several days as the wildfires spread throughout the region.

Scripps researchers are working on wildfire forecasting in the western United States using climate forecasting tools and methodology. In addition, scientists have used data from environmental sensors via UCSD's HPWren (High Performance Wireless Research and Education Network) to analyze the conditions that caused the devastating fires in 2003. Those included plummeting humidity, which led to the dry conditions for the fires to start and a rise in wind speed, which allowed them to dangerously proliferate. Scripps's ROADNet (Real-time Observatories, Applications, and Data management Network) provides the processing capabilities from sensors and wireless networks that allow scientists to analyze this critical data.