Israeli researchers develop new artificial intelligence-based system they claim is more than 90% accurate in predicting where lightning will strike and spark wildfires.
A new artificial intelligence (AI) model developed by Israeli researchers aims to revolutionize wildfire prediction, with a particular focus on lightning-induced blazes that are growing increasingly common due to climate change.
The new AI model can predict where and when lightning strikes are most likely to cause wildfires, achieving over 90% accuracy the researchers say — a first in wildfire forecasting.
Dr. Oren Glickman and Dr. Assaf Shmuel from the Department of Computer Science at Bar-Ilan University, in collaboration with experts from Ariel and Tel Aviv Universities, utilized seven years of high-resolution global satellite data, alongside detailed environmental factors like vegetation, weather patterns, and topography, to map and predict lightning-induced wildfire risks on a global scale.