Increases in Fire Activity all over the world has many wondering what in the world is going on. Think in terms of Solar Infrared radiation. There is an experiment you can do yourself to prove to yourself what is going on with the active fires of the world, and how infrared energy effects or can affect fires, such as drying out and stressing fuels, as fuels become drier, their associated BTU/Lb content rises closer to its maximum.
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This maximum (or what we in fire call the live and dead fuel moistures) actually affect the intensity of a burn as well as how easily something can ignite. As the Suns radiation heats the fuels on the ground and the surrounding vegetation, the longwave radiation is actually drying out the interior of the fuels, this means then that it would be easier for a fire once started to preheat the adjacent fuels, produce hotter and faster moving fires.
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The good news about all this, is that you can measure what the fires are generating in Btu. Once you know this, you can (if anyone thinks about it) begin to start re aligning resources to reduce the heat below its ignition temperature.
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Thought some here might actually find the below video fascinating. From 2010, imagine what may be going on now 12 years later .
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Earth Science Week 2010 – InfraRed Energy
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