Project description
The threat of lightning-ignited wildfires
Around the world, wildfires sparked by lightning strikes wreak havoc in remote and mountainous regions. Dry lightning, which occurs without substantial rainfall, remains a mysterious catalyst, with its frequency and impact poorly understood. As climate change escalates, there is a greater threat of extreme wildfire events, underscoring the urgency for solutions. Supported by the Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions (MSCA) programme, the FIRESKY project will study lightning-ignited wildfires and reinforce our defences against their devastating consequences. Through detailed data collection and analysis, it promises to refine fire forecasting and detection systems, while fostering public awareness and climate resilience. With wildfires intensifying, FIRESKY’s insights offer hope in our battle against nature’s fiery fury.
Objective
Lightning is the most frequent natural ignition source of wildfires. Lightning-ignited wildfires (LIWs) are a significant part of the fire regime in remote and mountainous regions across the world, as well as a major component of wildfires crises in the USA, Canada, Siberia, southern Europe, and Australia, among other regions. Dry lightning (lightning that occurs without a considerable amount of rain) are mentioned as one of the main factors driving LIWs. However, it is unclear how frequently dry lightning ignite fires, and whether dry lightning are associated to certain patters (e.g. shorter and smaller storms) and the lifecycle of thunderstorms (e.g. located at the edge and during the final stage). On the other hand, the projected increase in lightning, along with global-scale processes (climate and land use changes), suggest that extreme wildfire events caused by lightning are likely to occur more frequently. FIRESKY aims to enhance the understanding of LIWs to improve preparedness for changing wildfire regimes. To this end, FIRESKY will first characterize the thunderstorms causing LIWs, and second identify extreme LIWs and the conditions that promote them. The research project will find the specific lightning strikes and thunderstorms responsible for LIWs, and a database of extreme LIWs will be created. In summary, FIRESKY will help understand the role of thunderstorms in fire ignitions, and how these ignitions interact with other factors to become extreme wildfires. This knowledge can be incorporated into fire forecasting and detection systems. In addition, FIRESKY increases public awareness about natural and extreme wildfires, and contributes to adaptation to climate change by improving our preparedness to extreme events as part of an integrated fire management approach.
Fields of science (EuroSciVoc)
CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques.
CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques.
- natural sciencescomputer and information sciencesdatabases
- natural sciencesearth and related environmental sciencesatmospheric sciencesclimatologyclimatic changes
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Keywords
Programme(s)
- HORIZON.1.2 - Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions (MSCA) Main Programme
Funding Scheme
HORIZON-TMA-MSCA-PF-EF - HORIZON TMA MSCA Postdoctoral Fellowships - European FellowshipsCoordinator
1081 HV Amsterdam
Netherlands