Take a look at our WindNinja story map to see a quick overview of WindNinja and WindNinja Mobile.
ESRI User Story: Missoula Fire Sciences Lab Launches New Wind Modeling Mobile App to Help Firefighters in the Field
ESRI ArcWatch: Fighting Fire with WindNinja Mobile
The WindNinja computer program is a powerful tool for predicting wind fields in complex terrain, but is inconvenient for field users. To solve this problem, WindNinja-Mobile has been developed so field going personnel can also benefit from these high resolution wind forecasts on their phones and tablets. This tool provides improved capability to identify areas where local winds may either increase fire behavior or not influence fire. This information helps us all to make better fire management decisions.
The mobile app allows users to set up and run WindNinja simulations on a remote server. When the simulation is done, the results can be downloaded and viewed in the app. Internet connectivity is only required to setup and then download a simulation (typically < 15 min.), after that viewing of wind vectors can be done without connectivity. Several map layers, including topo and aerial imagery are available as basemaps. Additional fire-related information, including MODIS and VIIRS fire detections and GEOMAC fire perimeters, can also be viewed on the map.
Setting up a simulation is easy. Simply swoop out an area of interest on the map, provide a run name, select a weather model, choose notification options, and click submit. When the run has completed, click to download and view the output on the map.
WindNinja-Mobile offers a simplified interface, so not all options available in desktop WindNinja are available in the mobile application. See our Windninja page for information on the desktop version of WindNinja.
WindNinja-Mobile is available through Google Play and iTunes.
