Due to the vast amount of models and tools available we have chosen to divide them into the following categories.
Note: This list is not a recommendation or endorsement of any of these applications or technologies. This list is not all inclusive. If you have a model that should be included, contact us.
Simple Smoke Screening Tool
Simple Smoke Screening Tool is an easy to use online tool for plotting potential smoke movement using a set of basic input parameters (location, area burned, wind direction, fuel type and ignition method). The Simple Smoke Screening Tool was originally developed by the Southern High Resolution Modeling Consortium and hosted by Southern Regional Extension Forestry at the University of Georgia. Around 2015 it was upgraded to include a .kml output and hosted by the Southern Fire Exchange. Starting in July 2020 it has been hosted by the Florida Forest Service.
USFS AirFire / BlueSky Playground
The USDA Forest Service AirFire website combines a wide variety of wildland fire, smoke, emissions, and air quality monitoring and modeling tools. In the BlueSky Playground users can provide basic inputs to model emissions and smoke transport. For more information, see the BlueSky Playground Help.
CONSUME / Fire and Fire Tools (FFT)
CONSUME is now part of the Fire and Fire Tools (FFT) software application that integrates the Fuel Characteristics Classification System (FCCS), the Fire Emission Production Simulated (FEPS), Pile Calculator, and the Digital Photo Series.
HYSPLIT
HYSPLIT links to current NOAA weather forecasts to project plume dispersion and downwind concentrations from fires or a variety of other sources, within the next 48 hours. The model can be downloaded to a PC or run interactively on the Air Resources Laboratory’s READY website. HYSPLIT tutorials and recorded workshop presentations are available here.
VSmoke-GIS
VSmoke-GIS predicts maximum down-wind PM2.5 concentrations based on the Lavdas 1996 Vsmoke model. Model outcomes are shown via ESRI ArcMap / ArcView software.
VSmoke-Web
VSmoke-Web is a user-friendly tool to predict down-wind PM2.5 concentrations through an easy to use web browser-based interface. VSmoke-Web outputs can be exported as .KML files for easy viewing in Google Earth and other software.
BehavePlus
The BehavePlus fire modeling system is a collection of models that describe fire behavior, fire effects, and the fire environment.
FARSITE
FARSITE is a fire behavior and fire growth simulator that incorporates both spatial and temporal information on topography, fuels, and weather. FARSITE4 is no longer supported or available, and FlamMap6 now includes FARSITE.
FFI
Ecological Monitoring Utilities are an integration of FEAT and FIREMON, two respected, science-based programs used for fire effects monitoring on public lands.
Fire Frequency Tool (for use with ArcGIS)
Fire Frequency Tool (for use with ArcGIS) Prescribed fire is used widely to mitigate wildfires and restore ecosystems. This tool was developed to evaluate fire’s cumulative impact, calculate frequency, examine seasonality and estimate fuel accumulation to facilitate decision making in targeting successive prescribed fire application. For the Fire Frequency Tool (for use with ArcGIS) click here
Fuel and Fire Tools FFT
Fuel and Fire Tools FFT is a software application that integrates the Fuel Characteristics Classification System, Consume, FEPS, Pile Calculator, and Digital Photo Series into a single software package.
FireFamilyPlus
FireFamilyPlus is used for analysis of fire danger indices and weather.
FOFEM
First Order Fire Effects Model is a computer program for predicting tree mortality, fuel consumption, smoke production, and soil heating caused by prescribed fire or wildfire.
FlamMap
FlamMap is a fire behavior mapping and analysis program that computes potential fire behavior characteristics (e.g., spread rate, flame length, fireline intensity) over an entire FARSITE landscape for constant weather and fuel moisture conditions.
Fuel Treatments Photo Series Guide
The Fuel Treatments Photo Series Guide is designed to assist land managers in estimating the recovery and growth of characteristic understory conditions in pine flatwoods forests of the Southern Coastal Plain
IFTDSS
IFTDSS (Interagency Fuels Treatment Decision Support System) is a web-based software application that organizes previously existing fire and fuels software tools to make fuels treatment planning and analysis more effective and efficient. This tool requires the user to create an account.
LANDFIRE
LANDFIRE (Landscape Fire and Resource Management Planning Tools) is an interagency vegetation, fire, and fuel characteristics mapping program. The Nature Conservancy’s Conservation Gateway website provides LANDFIRE news and resources and user support, including a how-to-use guide.
SMARTFIRE
SMARTFIRE (Satellite Mapping Automated Reanalysis Tool for Fire Incident Reconciliation) is an algorithm and database system that operates within a geographic information system (GIS) framework.
SouthWRAP
SouthWRAP: The Southern Group of State Foresters Wildfire Risk Assessment Portal is an online portal to explore southeastern US wildfire risk spatial data.
Wind Ninja
Wind Ninja is a program that computes spatially varying wind fields for wildland fire and other applications requiring high resolution wind prediction in complex terrain.