NFOFRAS-National Forest Fire Risk Assessment System A si-cluster collaborated project

NFOFRAS | NFOFRAS-National Forest Fire Risk Assessment System A si-cluster collaborated project

In the framework of the Hellenic Space Technologies and Applications Cluster initiative (si-Cluster) http://www.si-cluster.gr/index.php/en/ , Space Programmes Unit offered the design and the development of a National Forest Fire Risk Assessment System based on the Global Climate Observing System (GCOS) of the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) and on the Land Cover Classification System (LCCS) of the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) of the United Nations.


Mission Overview:

The National Forest Fires Risk Assessment System (NFOFRAS) is an ongoing collaborative research program for the development and continuous upgrading of a unified assessment system which estimates the annual dryness of forest biomass based on climatic behavior of the atmosphere all year round and in particular in the "wet climatic period" . The success of the system in full operational-functional status involves three phases.




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Phases of the project

Phase A


The design of a national data base of all climate parameters which desribe the dryness state of the atmosphere and of the biomass based on climatic time series of all the observationa platforms incorporating to GCOS. For phase A transfer of state of the art nowhow was achived with cooperation with US agencies involved on Fire Risk Assessment for many decades(National Water and Climate Center and National Snow and Ice Data Center).

Phase B


The development of the national data base and the continuous enrichment of the base with regular satellite observation products from the new system of meteorological satellites of EUMETSAT (METEOSAT THIRD GENARATION) which is launching in 2018 and from the Sentinel land cover mission of ESA. The associate research units from the broader public and private sectors to charting the climatic variables observation of GCOS at smaller scales (downscaling) by creating and using corresponding satellite products by earth observation satellites.

Phase C


Mapping of climatic parameters of the country into smaller spatial and temporal scales with technical nesting running the climatic model CLM-COSMO available to the Hellenic National Meteorological Service (HNMS) in a wide area with initial conditions at least thirty years.

Key features (data sets) of the NFOFRAS Data Base


  • Standardized Precipitation Index developed by WMO from in situ observations of the Hellenic National Meteorological Service (HNMS) network.
  • Standardized Precipitation Index and Evapotranspiration per pixel for a climate normal period of 30 years from the reanalysis data set of the European Center for Medium Weather Forecast-ECMWF.
  • Standardized Precipitation Index and Evapotranspiration per pixel from the re analysis data of the COSMO climate model operating in HNMS.
  • Climatological data set from the accumulated rainfall measurements provided by the Weather Radar network of HNMS.
  • Climatological data sets for the terrestrial essential climate variables provided from the Land Surface Analysis Satellite Applications Facility-LSA SAF/EUMETSAT).
  • Climatological data sets for the same terrestrial essential climate variables provided from LSA SAF using satellite measurements from European Space Agency and NASA Earth Observation Satellites.
  • Climatic conditions and synoptic climate systems which favor forest fire danger (reference tool).
NFOFRAS Partners:
planetek logoPlanetek Hellas (leader)
Athena_Symbol_onlyATHENA Research Center/Space Programmes Unit
Geosystems logoGeosystems Hellas
EMY LogoHellenic National Meteorological Serice