Features
Considerable time and effort were spent to ensure the program can be used across Canada by not only fire management agencies, but also by other interested stakeholders, such as landscape modelers, university researchers, forest management planners, municipal planners, and educators. As a result, the program is open and flexible. The following list provides an overview of the Prometheus model:
- Is a deterministic fire growth simulation model that uses spatial input data on topography (elevation, slope, aspect), FBP fuel types, and weather to model fire behaviour and spread.
- Is a wave-propogation model that
- Simulates fire growth based on Huygens' principle of wave propagation using the simple ellipse as the underlying template to shape fire growth.
- Uses partial differential spread equations derived by Dr. Gwynfor Richards at Brandon University.
- Uses the Fire Weather Index (FWI) and Fire Behaviour Prediction (FBP) sub-systems of the Canadian Forest Fire Danger Rating System (CFFDRS) to model fire behaviour outputs.
- Models diurnal weather (temperature, relative humidity, wind speed).
- Allows users to modify fuels and weather data.
- Is a stand-alone program written in Visual C++ and uses Microsoft's COM interface.
- Runs under Microsoft Windows operating systems and uses a graphical user interface.
- Uses Grid ASCII, Shapefile, Generate file, and MapInfo file formats.