In the present research, the open-source WRF-SFIRE model has been used to carry out surface forest fire spread forecasting in the North Sikkim region of the Indian Himalayas. Global forecast system (GFS)-based hourly forecasted weather model data obtained through the National Centers for Environmental Prediction (NCEP) at 0.25 degree resolution were used to provide the initial conditions for running WRF-SFIRE. A landuse–landcover map at 1:10,000 scale was used to define fuel parameters for different vegetation types. The fuel parameters, i.e., fuel depth and fuel load, were collected from 23 sample plots (0.1 ha each) laid down in the study area. Samples of different categories of forest fuels were measured for their wet and dry weights to obtain the fuel load. The vegetation specific surface area-to-volume ratio was referenced from the literature. The atmospheric data were downscaled using nested domains in the WRF model to capture fire–atmosphere interactions at a finer resolution (40 m). VIIRS satellite sensor-based fire alert (375 m spatial resolution) was used as ignition initiation point for the fire spread forecasting, whereas the forecasted hourly weather data (time synchronized with the fire alert) were used for dynamic forest-fire spread forecasting. The forecasted burnt area (1.72 km²) was validated against the satellite-based burnt area (1.07 km²) obtained through Sentinel 2 satellite data. The shapes of the original and forecasted burnt areas matched well. Based on the various simulation studies conducted, an operational fire spread forecasting system, i.e., Sikkim Wildfire Forecasting and Monitoring System (SWFMS), has been developed to facilitate firefighting agencies to issue early warnings and carry out strategic firefighting.

GARUDA Grid developed on NKN (National Knowledge Network) network by Centre for Development of Advanced Computing (C-DAC) hubs High Performance Computing (HPC) Clusters which are geographically separated all over India. C-DAC has been associated with development of HPC infrastructure since its establishment in year 1988. The Grid infrastructure provides a secure and efficient way of accessing heterogeneous resource . Enabling scientific applications on Grid has been researched for some time now. In this regard we have successfully enabled Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) application which can help CFD community as a whole in effective manner to carry out computational research which requires huge compuational resource beyond once in house capability. This work is part of current on-going project Grid GARUDA funded by Department of Information Technology.