To monitor, predict, and fight wildfires like the one currently affecting the University of California at San Diego and the University of Maryland, with support from the National Science Foundation (NSF), are in the process of building an end-to-end cyber infrastructure (CI) for that challenge called WIFIRE. It is designed for real-time and data-driven simulation, prediction, and visualization. WIFIRE combines satellite data and real-time remote sensor data with various computational techniques to forecast the rate at which wildfires might spread. Many scientists, engineers, technologists, government policy makers, private companies, and firefighters are a part of the project team involved in architecture and implementation. Some prototypes and pilot applications already are available, although the project is in its first year. The vision for WIFIRE is to put in place a programmable, scalable, and reusable wildfire modeling framework. The project is part of the NSF Hazards SEES program. When fully developed, WIFIRE will be accessible to users via specialized web interfaces and alerts broadcasted to receivers before, during, and after a wildfire. Read more at:

http://www.informationweek.in/informationweek/news-analysis/297321/helping-tackling-wildfire-control