Scientists at the Moscow-based Space Research Institute (SRI) have come up with a computer model enabling quick forecasts of how forest wildfires and industrial fires may spread over an area, using data received from remote Earth sounding satellites, the Russian news agency RIA Novosti , citing Sergei Bartalyov who heads SRI’s laboratory for satellite monitoring of ground-based ecosystems.

“This is a brand new software product we developed less than six months ago, enabling us to predict how fires will move around, based on data from precision cartography satellites. We took a Canadian model and have upgraded it,” Mr. Bartalyov said.

He hopes the Russian Ministry of Agriculture as well as EMERCOM, the federal ministry responsible for civil defense and for dealing with the aftermath of natural and other disasters, will be the main customer for this new product.

“It is important that a deeper interest be expressed than we have today. The Ministries do know we have the product; but the software is very new, and we wish more agencies knew about it,” the scientist said.

He noted that today, Russia uses data on fires obtained from both foreign satellites and two Russian ones, Meteor-1 and Meteor-2.