Multiple views of the October 2003 Cedar Fires captured by the High Performance Wireless Research and Education Network

Evan Morikawa, Atul Nayak, Frank Vernon, Hans-Werner Braun, Ron Serabia, Jennifer Matthews

Abstract: Late October 2003 brought devastating fires to the entire Southern California region. The NSF-funded High Performance Wireless Research and Education Network (HPWREN - http://hpwren.ucsd.edu/) cameras captured the development and progress of the Cedar fire in San Diego County. Cameras on Mt. Laguna, Mt. Woodson, Ramona Airport, and North Peak, recording one frame every 12 seconds, allowed for a time-lapse composite showing the fire’s formation and progress from its beginnings on October 26th, to October 30th.

The time-lapse camera footage depicts gushing smoke formations during the day, and bright orange walls of fire at night. The final video includes time synchronized views from multiple cameras, and an animated map highlighting the progress of the fire over time, and a directional indicator for each of the displaying cameras. The video is narrated by the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection Fire Captain Ron Serabia (retd.) who was working then as a Air Tactical Group Supervisor with the aerial assault on the Cedar Fire Sunday October 26, 2004.

The movie will be made available for download from the Scripps Institution of Oceanography Visualization Center Visual Objects library (supported by the OptIPuter project) at http://www.siovizcenter.ucsd.edu.