Fire Behavior Options Tab

The Fire Behavior Outputs Tab of the "Run:" dialog box controls the output products for a basic fire behavior FlamMap run.

Processor Usage

With a multi-processor or multi-core (CPU) computer you can control the number of processors FlamMap utilizes. More than one processor will help processing time for large FlamMap runs dramatically. The Number of Processors: spin box cannot be set to more than the number of total (virtual or logical) processors in your computer. If your processors are Hyper-Threaded you can assume two threads for each physical processor.

FlamMap can use up to 64 simulation threads and scales to the number of processors very well.

Normally, to process the run as fast as possible you should select as many processors as your computer has available. But if you want to use other applications on your computer while FlamMap runs are processing, you should select less than the maximum number available.

Outputs

Any or all of the following output themes can be calculated in a FlamMap run by selecting the appropriate check box in the Outputs group.

Output	Available Display Units
Fireline Intensity	kW/m, BTU/ft/sec
Rate of Spread	m/min, ft/min, chains/hr
Flame Length	meters, feet
Heat/Unit Area	kJ/m2, BTU/ft2
Mid-flame Wind Speed	mph, km/h, ft/min, m/sec
Crown Fire Activity	1 (surface), 2 (torching), 3 (active crown)
Crown Fraction Burned	fraction
Spread Vectors	m/min and degrees azimuth
Maximum Spot Vectors	meters and degrees azimuth
Maximum Spot (Combined)	meters and radians
Maximum Spot Direction	meters, feet
Maximum Spot Distance	m/min, ft/min, chains/hr
Horizontal Movement Rate	m/min, ft/min, chains/hr

There are also five additional grids available when Fuel Moisture Conditioning is utilized.

Non-Fixed Fuel Moisture Output Grids	Available Display Units
Solar Radiation	W/m2
1, 10, 100, & 1000 hour Timelag Dead Fuel Moisture Content	fraction (e.g. 0.12) Note that 1000 hour dead fuel moistures are not utilized by the fire behavior models.

When utilizing either of the gridded wind options three additional themes are produced.

Gridded Wind Outputs	Available Display Units
Wind Vectors	mph, km/h, ft/min, m/sec
Wind Direction Grid	degrees
Wind Speed Grid	mph, km/h, ft/min, m/sec

A default Run Log is output for all FlamMap runs. A Run Log is a text file containing all of the run input parameters, outputs requested, run duration, and the run date/time. A Run Log can be saved and imported into a different FlamMap Project.

Four default grids are included in most FlamMap runs, three of Elliptical Dimensions and one for Maximum Spread Direction. These are intermediate products of the MTT model and made available for research and creating unique output products.

The "Create/Modify Legend" dialog for many outputs provide options to convert between metric and English units. To avoid unexpected results that can occur when changing units take the following precautions,

when using a Predefined Legend do not change the units,
make sure to have at least one or two Decimal Places: set when converting.

Options

The Options group box controls the spread direction for calculating the fire behavior characteristics of the selected outputs. All of the fire behavior characteristic outputs are sensitive to the spread direction.

The two radio buttons determine the reference point for the value selected in the Degrees: spin box. Selecting the Relative Spread Direction From Maximum radio button uses the calculated Maximum Spread Direction of each cell for the reference or zero value. The Spread Direction From North (Azimuth) radio button uses north for the zero value.

Once you select the reference use the Degrees: spin box to select the direction for calculating fire behavior characteristics.

Status Bar

The FlamMap "Run:" dialog box/tabs have a status bar and functional buttons at the bottom to help you keep track of where you are at with the set up process.