Grapevine

Fighting forest fires more efficiently from the air

Whether in Canada, California or around the Mediterranean—forest fires are becoming more frequent and, above all, more severe around the world. Especially in summer, heat, drought and wind often turn such fires into raging infernos, and the climate crisis is certainly not helping.

Researchers at the Fraunhofer Institute for High-Speed Dynamics, Ernst-Mach-Institut, EMI, and start-up CAURUS Technologies GmbH are responding to the increasing global threat. Together, they are developing an innovative extinguishing method that can be used to fight large-scale fires more efficiently from the air.

Climate change is altering the quality of forest fires, which are getting hotter and spreading faster. In Canada alone, an area of around 185,000 km2—slightly larger than the size of Greece and Switzerland combined—caught fire in 2023.

Germany is also seeing its forest fire season start earlier and earlier. In dry regions such as Brandenburg, the first hectares of forest fire were reported as early as March 1 this year.

Working closely with their partner CAURUS Technologies GmbH, researchers at Fraunhofer EMI are seeking to make a key contribution to fighting forest fires from the air with a new type of extinguishing method. The modular system consists of hardware and software and combines digital technology with innovative extinguishing approaches to complement conventional extinguishing methods.