A new AI model developed by Israeli researchers promises to revolutionize the forecast of forest fires caused by lightning with unprecedented precision of more than 90 %.
Climate change makes forest fires more frequent, more violent and more unpredictable. Among the most feared causes: lightning, often responsible for fire departures in remote areas, difficult to access and sometimes impossible to monitor in real time.
To meet this challenge, Israeli researchers have just developed an artificial intelligence model (AI) capable of predicting these fires with unprecedented precision.
A major advance in the fight against natural fires
Developed by researchers from Bar-Ilan, Ariel and Tel Aviv universities, the model is based on seven years of high-resolution satellite data combined with environmental variables such as vegetation, weather and topography. This allowed them to develop an AI capable of anticipating the risk of fire caused by lightning with precision greater than 90 %. This performance largely exceeds that of traditional forecast systems, often limited to a regional approach or focused on human activities.
The team of researchers tested the model on fires of 2021, and the results were particularly promising. This system could ultimately become a first line tool for emergency and emergency planning services, allowing faster and better targeted interventions. It also responds to a crucial gap: the fires caused by lightning, although deadly, are rarely integrated into conventional predictive models, because their behavior is complex and their origin often difficult to trace.
In the context of climate change, where dry thunderstorms, prolonged droughts and vulnerable ecosystems are multiplying, this innovation opens the way to proactive risk management. If the model is not yet integrated into real -time forecast systems, its future applications may well transform the prevention of natural disasters worldwide.
Source : Phys.org
