July 28, 2023 by Scott Pearse
VAPOR takes home Best Visualization award at PEARC23
Recent visualization work at NCAR’s Research Applications Laboratory (RAL) and Computational & Information Systems Laboratory (CISL) has been awarded the Best Overall Visualization award at this year’s PEARC23. The visualization highlights recent advances in how Artificial Intelligence can be used to drive wildfire simulations with better predictive skill, described in the publication’s abstract below.
“The East Troublesome Wildfire was the fourth largest wildfire to date in Colorado history, igniting on October 14, 2020. Driven by low humidity and high winds, the wildfire spread to over 200,000 acres in nine days, with 87,000 of those acres being burnt in a single 24 hour period. Wildfire simulations and forecasts help decision-makers issue evacuation orders and inform response teams, but these simulations depend on accurate variable inputs to produce trustworthy results. These wildfire visualizations demonstrate new AI tools developed at the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR), which are producing superior wildfire simulation outputs than have been available in the past.”