SAN DIEGO - The battle against wildfires in the state is not just taking place on the ground.
Researchers are processing data in the supercomputer building on the campus of UC San Diego as a part of an effort to provide potentially life-saving information to first responders in real time. Jessica Block, Executive Director of WIFIRE tells NBC 7 the software analyzes video and sensors from mountain cameras and planes that are monitoring fires as they break out.
"And then predict where its gonna go using fire prediction software, so that firefighters can know exactly where the fire is and where it’s going," said Block.
The software is a part of FIRIS or Fire Integrated Real-time Intelligence System, which is a partnership between the university, the state and private firms. The turnaround time for the supercomputer to process the information on the wildfire and issue prediction models is about five minutes. Then that information is directly sent to CalFIRE and the California Office of Emergency Services.
The program has already analyzed data from more than one thousand brush fires this year.