ForeFire is both a free source code and a wide-scale online forest fire spread simulation service [Filippi et al. 2009]. The code is in essence a solver engine for physical models such as the one developed by the Fire team [Balbi et al. 2009], which is able to take into account combustion processes, topography, as well as the nature and humidity level of the combustible matter.
Coupled with the Meso-NH atmospheric model developed jointly by the Aerology laboratory and the Meteorological atmospheric Study Group (GAME/CNRM, Météo-France / CNRS), it allows for consideration of the effects caused by fire to the atmosphere and the impact of the knock-on effect on fire spread [Filippi et al. 2011].
Available over the national territory, ForeFire is used by Field Operators for feedback and feedback planning. It can be used online at the address: http://forefire.univ-corse.fr/
The code, which has been made available to the community, has been compiled by several contributors in France and internationally, and is available at the address: https://github.com/forefireAPI/firefront
Observed, simulated plumes of smoke. The red outline represents the edge of the observed fire front. The blue and green outlines represent the fire front on the ground simulated through the coupled model, after 50 minutes and 4 hours of simulation respectively. The yellow outline is the result of the non-coupled model (only Meso-NH sends information to ForeFire) after 4 hours of simulation.
This tool has been developed under the scientific guidance of Jean-Baptiste Filippi who coordinates the ANR-backed IDEA project (2010-2014) "Fires, from dynamics to atmospheric emissions" (in French: "Incendies, de la dynamique aux émissions atmosphériques") and the ANR project FireCaster (2017-2021).
Simulation of the FireFlux field experiment coupled with the MesoNH model.
The development of Forefire continues and is currently carried out as part of the ANR Firecaster project: https://firecaster.universita.corsica/article.php?id_art=1986&id_rub=530&lang=en
[Filippi et al. 2009] Jean Baptiste Filippi, F. Morandini, Jacques-Henri Balbi, David Hill. Discrete event front tracking simulator of a physical fire spread model. SIMULATION, SAGE Publications, 2009, 86 (10), pp.629-644.
[Filippi et al. 2011] Jean Baptiste Filippi, Frédéric Bosseur, Xavier Pialat, Paul-Antoine Santoni, Susanna Strada, et al. Simulation of coupled fire/atmosphere interaction with the MesoNH-ForeFire models. Journal of Combustion, xx, 2011
[Balbi et al. 2009] Jacques-Henri Balbi, Frederic Morandini, Xavier Silvani, Jean Baptiste Filippi, Frédéric Rinieri. A physical model for wildland fires. Combustion and Flame, Elsevier, 2009, pp.2217-2230