Fires In South California

Over the years, the amount of fires occuring in South California have been massive. In 2003, 376,237 acres in San Diego burned, killing 16 people. In these fires, San Diego County spent 43,230,826 replacing the 3241 structures that were destroyed. 4 fires in Southern California occured within Ausust 21st through August 25th in 2013. The amount of wildfires in South California has been increasing. These fires often go long enough without being noticed, and when they are noticed, they have most likely expanded into a larger problem. Fires have been killing off a good portion of the life in South California and something needs to change in order to keep the environment alive. It is much easier to stop a fire from becoming a big

problem when they are noticed earlier in the process.
If thermal sensors taking a continuous reading were stationed in natural environments where fires occur most often, then it would be easier to stop the fire. The sensor would send a continuous feed to the fire department, so they can see when a fire might happens at all times. With this solution, fires will be able to be stopped before they kill off the environment they consume.
The purpose of this experiment is to test the accuracy of these thermal sensors at different distances to know where to place these thermal sensors in natural environments and how far away from each other. Without knowing this information, it would be impossible to know where to place the sensors. Thermography and its limitations give information that support this research.
Entity
Thermal sensors are instruments that measure heat.

IC Temperature Sensors agreed that there is a major diversity of how thermal sensors read the heat, for example, a thermometer measures temperature with mercury rising as heat increases, showing the temperature on the side. However, thermometers only measure the temperature when it is close up to the heat source. Thermographic sensors are long ranged temperature measuring devices which makes them more ideal for this experiment. Thermographic sensors read the temperature using thermograms. Thermograms show a variety of different shades of color depending the temperature. The temperature is based off a number of different variables such as thermal radiation (2007). Thermal sensors that use thermography have many uses that they were created for. Thermal sensors are used in the military to detect explosives frequently. The marines use thermography to spot enemies also. Thermography is not only used by the military, it is also used for medical reasons such as detection of breast cancer (Flir Threat Detection,

2014).
Thermography is the study of heat distributions to study and measure temperature of a structure or an environment, according to Nasa’s Department of Thermography inc.

Thermography is used frequently with thermograms to study distributions of heat for predictive and preventive purposes (2013). Thermograms measure heat distributions with thermal radiation. The thermograms read temperatures and give a feed of either a black and white picture, or a multi colored picture that represents heat signatures. These signatures are mixtures of emitted energy, transmitted energy, and reflective energy that make a picture of incident energy which is the profile of the heat signatures being read by the thermograms (Signori Infosciences 2010). According to Western Area Power Administration, in thermography, the brighter colors will be spots that are warmer compared to the rest of the image, and the spots that are colder tend to show up in darker shades of blue. These thermograms are engendered by specific types of thermal sensors

(2011).
Thermal Radiation, or emissivity, is electromagnetic radiation generated by charged particles in motion called thermal motion. Heat waves that give off heat exothermically or endothermically are examples of thermal radiation. Thermal radiation will happen with any temperature above absolute zero because of the black body radiation law according to (LWIR Thermography Prevention, 2010). With higher the temperatures, the larger the heat signature or thermal radiation will be. Thermal Radiation is determined by the object’s emissivity.
Independent Variable
However, thermography is limited to its use because distance will cause accuracy to ebb (Signori Infosciences, 2010). For instance, the thermal radiation generated by the object may not reach the thermal sensor according to Limitations of Fire Alarms-System Sensors, 2011. Jared Bench states that thermal radiation stays close to the energy source and doesn’t necessarily disperse far off into the air (2007). With this happening, the thermal sensor may not read the heat signature if it is too far away. With father distances, weather and humidity will be calculated in with the temperature. So because of this issue, percent error will increase with a farther distance (Ata & Nakiboglu, University of Journal Science, 2011).
Another fault in thermal sensors is target size, with long distances, the target size will appear to be not as large, so it would be arduous to calculate the temperature and it will not seem as big of an issue ( Ata & Nakiboglu, 2011).
Dependent Variable
Although the only way to fix these issues is to have an extremely accurate thermosensor, a percent error can be calculated for the ones that are not so precise. Having a threshold temperature is key. The temperature that the thermal sensor reads can be measured for accuracy with a threshold temperature. Taking the difference between the two temperatures will give the data needed to determine the accuracy. If these thermal sensors were placed in the forest to determine when a forest fire is starting, this information will give support on where they need to be placed (Ata and Nakiboglu, University of Journal Sciences, 2010).
The IR/Sonic Measurer is a three in one temperature sensor that measures distance away from an object. According to the Ryobi operators manual, it is only accurate up to 30 ft and measures temperatures in Fahrenheit up to 518 degrees fahrenheit. If this sensor only goes to 518 degrees fahrenheit, then there will be some accuracy issues measuring an open fire being that open fires are well over this temperature. This sensor is a point and shoot laser pointer, which means it only reads in a small and specific spot instead of entire heat source, this could lead to some accuracy issues as well (n.d.).
The Flir ex-300 is a thermal sensor that uses thermography imaging to take its readings, according to the Flir owner’s manual. This sensor takes a picture of the heat source to measure its temperature unlike the IR/Sonic Measurer which is a point and shoot. The Flir ex-300 takes temperature readings over 1000 degrees celsius. It also can take these temperatures at distances of 65 feet (2013).
Conclusion
In the experiment, the control temperature will be taken inside by setting up a space heater at the highest level possible and an oven thermometer will take the temperature. At every increment of one meter, tape will be placed marking that that is a spot measurements will be taken. The Flir sensor is a thermographic sensor that will be tested at each increment of one 1 meter for all 9 meters (Flir owners manual, 2013). The IR/Sonic Measurer is a point and shoot laser pointer that will also be tested at each increment of 1 meter for all 9 meters (Ryobi operators manual, n.d). This information will be used to see if thermal sensor accuracy decreases with farther distances away from the heat source (Signori Infosciences, 2010) .
After the data will be collected for the FLIR and the IR/Sonic Measurer, the same procedure will be taken outside to see if Ata and Nakiboglu’s (2010) claim was correct that the weathering such as wind and temperature will affect the accuracy. The sensors will then be tested on an open fire using the same procedure to see if the heat source itself caused the accuracy to ebb. All the data will be used for a bigger engineering project.