Interim Report-Supercomputing Challenge 2004-2005 Team        
								Christopher Morrison


 Question
What problems would a fire in the Bosque pose to the environment and the people 
in it?
Problem definition
In recent years fires have plagued the Bosque in and around the New Mexico Rio Grande River Basin. These fires have posed serious health and environmental concerns for the communities in and around it. The fires have been blamed on the recent drought however most of these recent fires, by the Mantanyo Bridge, Rio Grande and I40, and down in Socorro have been caused by human related activities. 
	Our problem is how fast, can a fire spread across the New Mexico Rio Grande River Basin under any condition and what will be the resulting damages caused by it?

Problem Solutions
	To accurately model fire we have decided to consider fire a certain temperature (to be determined by fuel conditions). A fire would be started in one area and would radiate its heat into the adjacent ground. The adjacent ground would heat based on the ambient and local conditions bearing on it. Once the heat becomes strong enough (700-800 degrees Celsius) some or all of the adjacent patches will be set to fire (determined by ambient and local). The fire can only burn for so long before it is exhausted of fuel (determined by local conditions) so if the heat from the fire is not strong enough then the fire will go out there fore extinguishing that patch of fire. In order to get the local conditions in the Bosque we must conduct a woodland survey for a size of area, to be determined, and each patch programmed will have an accurate foliage meter.
	Human intervention is the second step of the programming, and could be taken out altogether if time is short. No agreeable plan has been thought of as yet seeming as we have to take one step of the project at a time.

Progress to date
	Due to prior activities very little time has been allotted, however we are meeting to discuss program parameters and a representation program will be ready soon. However large amounts of data and field data still have to be taken to guarantee any accuracy of this program. However despite our lack of progress we are working very hard to make this year’s AiS a great success.

Expected Results
	As of any project we want accuracy. No second rate information will be taken. We hope to have a working model that could possibly be used to save the Bosque, and people living in and around it in the event of a fire. A video game program is for fun, but the point of this program is for emergency response, in any condition, in order that it could be used to save lives

Sources
	1.http://fire.nist.gov/bfrlpubs/fire95/art087.html
	2. http://www.bfrl.nist.gov/866/fmabbs.html
	3. http://www.fpe.umd.edu/department/modeling/mathematical.html
	4.  http://fire.nist.gov/bfrlpubs/fire94/art105.html 
	5. http://fire.org/nav.mas?pages=JFSP&mode=4
Team Members Christopher Morrison Dale Henderson