Two Separate Burns Test Javelin System's Ability to Produce Climate Data Under Intense Forest Fire Conditions
Voltree Power, which has been collaborating with the US Forest Service to install and test its Javelin Rapid Deploy system, today announced that the system was successfully tested in two separate prescribed burns that were conducted under a Joint Fire Science grant program in North Carolina. Both prescribed research burns - one in March and one in April of this year - proved that Javelin Rapid Deploy equipment can survive and continuously produce valuable climate data under intense forest fire conditions. Video coverage can be viewed on YouTube.
The prescribed burns were conducted at Camp LeJeune, the largest Marine Corps base on the East Coast. Both projects had two primary objectives: to extend the current data models on the sustained smoldering of organic wetland soil, with the ultimate goal of improving wildfire containment; and to evaluate new technologies - like the Javelin system - as possible alternatives and/or improvements to sensor and current data collection methods.
The March DoD burn was conducted over 900 acres. Participants included Pacific Northwest National Labs, the North Carolina Forest Service, and the Missoula Fire Science Lab. The April DoD burn was conducted over 100 acres. This burn was conducted by the North Carolina Forest Service along with personnel from the Fire Science Lab in Missoula with the Javelin system as the only new technology evaluated.
"As our work with the US Forest Service progresses, we are very encouraged by the performance of our Javelin Rapid Deploy System's ability to consistently perform and produce a new level of low-cost, detailed climate data under the most intense forest fire conditions," said Stella Karavas, CEO of Voltree Power. "These opportunities allow Voltree to continuously build and improve upon its technology to meet customer needs by providing cost-effective, value-added solutions in extreme environments."
The Javelin Rapid Deploy's cost-effective, portable mesh network of plug-and-play climate sensors extends the usefulness of the data collected by the US Forest Service's established Remote Automated Weather Stations (RAWS) by collecting detailed information from hard-to-reach areas, such as under the forest canopy, and on ridges of different elevations. Data including wind speed and direction, air temperature and relative humidity, accumulated rainfall, and barometric pressure, as well as GPS coordinates are sent by the Javelin Rapid Deploy notes to RAWS, and then transmitted each hour via the GOES satellite network system to fire officials for review. The data can be used in many ways, such as prepositioning fire resources, determining when to perform prescribed burns, and monitoring wildfires, as well as other fire weather management purposes such as the study of fire behavior.
About Voltree Power (www.voltreepower.com)
Voltree Power is leading the way in the practical integration of three distinct technologies: energy harvesting, lower-power radios, and wireless mesh networks. Such integration offers solutions for numerous remote-sensing applications that include forest fire detection and prediction, agricultural sensing, waterway/reservoir monitoring, and hydrology as well as border and other remote location surveillance of motion, heat, and radiation under triple canopy.
Voltree Power offices and manufacturing facility are based in Canton, Massachusetts U.S.A.
Contacts:
Voltree Power
Martha Papalia, 978-807-9410
mpapalia@voltreepower.com
