Farsite Input Files

Use of the Farsite DLL is only supported thru use of input files.

‘#’ in first column indicates a comment line.

A user of the Farsite DLL should be familiar with FARSITE and the terminology FARSITE uses. It is not the intent of this document to educate a user in use of Farsite, but to document the available switches for use with the Farsite DLL.

The following is a list of available switches to embed in the Farsite input files.

MANDATORY Switches:

Switch: FUEL_MOISTURES_DATA:
Usage:
FUEL_MOISTURES_DATA: X 
where X = the number of fuel model entries
NOTE: Fuel Model 0 is required! This is the default moistures to use when a fuel model is encountered in the lcp file that does not have an entry in the inputs file.

Fuel mode entry format:
Model  FM1   FM10  FM100   FMLiveHerb   FMLiveWoody

Example:
FUEL_MOISTURES_DATA: 3
# Model  F1   F10  F100   FLH   FLW
   0      2    2     3      4     5
   1      4    3     6     10    16
   2      4    3    19     10    16



Switch: WEATHER_DATA:
Usage: 
WEATHER_DATA: X 
where X is the number of weather data entries, followed by X number of weather data records, 1 per line. NOTE: The weather data records must be in sequential order! No skipping days! Farsite will start conditioning from as early as possible in the weather stream and condition fuels through the end of the simulation.
Example:
# Mth  Day  Pcp  mTH  xTH   mT xT   xH mH   Elv   PST  PET
# Mth = month,
# Day = day,
# Per = precip in hundredths of an inch (integer e.g. 10 = 0.1 inches),
# mTH = min_temp_hour 0-2400,
# xTH = max_temp_hour 0 - 2400,
# mT  = min_temp,
# xT  = max_temp,
# mH  = max_humidity,
# xH  = min_humidity,
# Elv = elevation,
# PST = precip_start_time 0-2400
# PET = precip_end_time   0-2400
# NOTE: do not leave any blank values
WEATHER_DATA: 17
7 17 0 400 1500 53 94 36 8 4478 0 0
7 18 0 500 1400 52 94 43 9 4478 0 0
7 19 0 500 1300 55 96 48 8 4478 0 0
7 20 0 500 1200 57 90 48 12 4478 0 0
7 21 0 600 1200 59 89 59 16 4478 0 0
7 22 0 500 1500 52 88 59 11 4478 0 0
7 23 0 400 1300 55 92 54 10 4478 0 0
7 24 0 400 1400 54 96 50 9 4478 0 0
7 25 0 500 1300 52 95 48 7 4478 0 0
7 26 50 600 1400 54 93 38 11 4478 1100 1700
7 27 0 400 1300 55 93 41 7 4478 0 0
7 28 0 500 1500 53 93 38 9 4478 0 0
7 29 0 500 1300 56 91 35 11 4478 0 0
7 30 0 500 1500 53 94 46 11 4478 0 0
7 31 0 500 1300 55 93 45 9 4478 0 0
8 1 0 500 1400 53 96 46 10 4478 0 0
8 2 0 400 1200 55 91 44 2 4478 0 0

Switch: WEATHER_DATA_UNITS: 
Usage: 
WEATHER_DATA_UNITS: units 
where units is either METRIC or ENGLISH
Note: If not used weather data is assumed to be in English units.
Example:
WEATHER_DATA_UNITS: METRIC

Switch: WIND_DATA:
Usage: 
WIND_DATA: X 
where X is the number of Wind Data records
Example:
WIND_DATA: 7
# Mth  Day  Hour   Speed Direction CloudCover
7 17 0 3 114 0
7 17 100 1 31 0
7 17 200 1 127 0
7 17 300 5 114 0
7 17 400 2 58 0
7 17 500 2 22 0
7 17 600 1 53 0

Wind Data records should be in ascending order, and should cover the same time frame as the weather data records. Small gaps are allowed, but Farsite will burn using the most available wind record so hourly wind records are desired.

Switch: WIND_DATA_UNITS: 
Usage: 
WIND_DATA_UNITS: units 
where units is either METRIC or ENGLISH
Note: If not used wind data is assumed to be in English units.
Example:
WIND_DATA_UNITS: METRIC



Switch: FOLIAR_MOISTURE_CONTENT:
Usage: 
FOLIAR_MOISTURE_CONTENT: X 
where X is the foliar moisture content in percent. The default is 100 and 100 percent will be used if this switch is not present.
Example:
FOLIAR_MOISTURE_CONTENT: 90

Switch: CROWN_FIRE_METHOD
Usage: 
CROWN_FIRE_METHOD: cfmethod 
where cfmethod is either Finney or ScottRhienhardt
Note: If not used the Finney crown fire method will be used.
Example:
CROWN_FIRE_METHOD: ScottRhienhardt

Switch: FARSITE_START_TIME
Usage:
FARSITE_START_TIME: MM DD HHmm
Where MM is Month (1-12), DD is day of month, HH is hour(0-24) and mm is minute(0-59) of the fire start time.
Example:
FARSITE_START_TIME: 08 07 1000

Switch: FARSITE_END_TIME
Usage:
FARSITE_END_TIME: MM DD HHmm
Where MM is Month (1-12), DD is day of month, HH is hour(0-24) and mm is minute(0-59) of the fire end time (end of simulation).
Example:
FARSITE_END_TIME: 08 10 1800

Switch: FARSITE_TIMESTEP
Usage: 
FARSITE_TIMESTEP: X
Where X is the Actual Time Step in minutes. Note there is no Secondary Time Step in the Farsite DLL. 
Example:
FARSITE_TIME_STEP: 60

Switch: FARSITE_DISTANCE_RES
Usage:
FARSITE_DISTANCE_RES: X
Where X is a real number representing the distance resolution. Farsite DLL will check for new fire characteristics when this distance has been covered within a time step.
Example:
FARSITE_DISTANCE_RES: 30.0

Switch: FARSITE_PERIMETER_RES
Usage:
FARSITE_PERIMETER_RES: X
Where X is a real number representing the Farsite Perimeter Resolution. Farsite will have fire vertices every X meters along a perimeter while burning at each time step.
Example:
FARSITE_PERIMETER_RES: 60.0

Switch: FARSITE_SPOT_PROBABILITY
Usage:
FARSITE_SPOT_PROBABILITY: X
Where X is a real number from 0.0 – 1.0 representing the probability that an ember can survive to intersect the landscape. This probability check is done after an ember is lofted but before ember flight. 
Note: Farsite generates a lot of embers. Generally, this probability should not be higher than 0.1 or Farsite will spend a great deal of time resolving perimeters of spots created by embers.
Example:
FARSITE_SPOT_PROBABILITY: 0.01

Switch: FARSITE_SPOT_IGNITION_DELAY
Usage:
FARSITE_SPOT_IGNITION_DELAY X
Where X is an integer representing the delay time in minutes before a spot fire is started after an ember lands on a burnable substrate.
Note: This switch should probably be set to zero (0) when acceleration is on.
Example:
FARSITE_SPOT_IGNITION_DELAY: 15

Switch: FARSITE_MINIMUM_SPOT_DISTANCE
Usage:
FARSITE_MINIMUM_SPOT_DISTANCE: X
Where X is the distance in meters an ember must travel before it can start a spot fire. This switch was added to speed up Farsite resolving fire polygons that where generally overrun by surface fire spread.
Example:
FARSITE_MINIMUM_SPOT_DISTANCE: 30

Switch: FARSITE_ACCELERATION_ON
Usage:
FARSITE_ACCELERATION_ON: X
Where X is either 0 for no acceleration or 1 to use acceleration.
Example:
FARSITE_ACCELERATION_ON: 1

Switch: FARSITE_IGNITION_FILE
Usage:
FARSITE_IGNITION_FILE: Filename
Where Filename is the complete path to the ignition shape file. Example:
FARSITE_IGNITION_FILE: C:\Data\ignit.shp

Optional Switches:

Switch: FARSITE_BURN_PERIODS
Usage:
FARSITE_BURN_PERIODS: X
Where X is the number of burn period entries, immediately followed by X burn period entries on the next X lines in the inputs file. A burn period entry has the format of:
MM DD HHmm HHmm
Where MM is the month (1-12), DD is the day of the month, and the first HHmm is the burn period start hour and minute, and the second HHmm is the burn period end hour and minute.
Note that if no burn periods are used Farsite DLL will burn for the entire simulation period. Also, there can be more than one burn period per day but they must not overlap.
Example:
FARSITE_BURN_PERIODS: 4
08 07 1000 1800
08 08 1000 1800
08 09 1000 1800
08 10 1000 1800

Switch: FARSITE_BARRIER_FILE
Usage:
FARSITE_BARRIER_FILE: Filename
Where Filename is the path to the barrier shape file. No barriers are required. Note: Farsite DLL does not create a perimeter with barriers as does FARSITE4, but sets the underlying fuels to non-burnable for every pixel in the landscape that the barrier crosses.
Example:
FARSITE_BARRIER_FILE: C:\Data\barrier.shp

Switch: FARSITE_FILL_BARRIERS
Usage:
FARSITE_FILL_BARRIERS: X
Where X is either 0 for false (no barrier fill) or 1 for true (fill the barriers). Farsite DLL will set all of the pixels inside a barrier polygon to non-burnable.
Example:
FARSITE_FILL_BARRIERS: 1

Switch: CUSTOM_FUELS_FILE:
Usage: 
CUSTOM_FUELS_FILE: Filename
Where Filename is the complete path and name of the desired custom fuels file to use.
Example:
CUSTOM_FUELS_FILE: C:\data\customfuels.fmd

Switch: FARSITE_SPOT_GRID_RESOLUTION:
Usage:
FARSITE_SPOT_GRID_RESOLUTION: X
Where integer X is the resolution of the background spotting grid.
NOTE: X should be an integer divisor of the landscape resolution, i.e. if landscape resolution is 30m, X should be 30, 15, 10, 6, 5, 3, 2, or 1. The intent is for the background spotting grid to subdivide landscape cells. The background spotting grid is used to prevent more than one spot fire being started in a spotting grid cell, so adjust this parameter to your tolerance for spot fire density.
Example:
FARSITE_SPOT_GRID_RESOLUTION: 15

Switch: CUSTOM_FUELS_DATA
Usage: 
CUSTOM_FUELS_DATA: X
Where X is an integer representing the number of custom fuels records, immediately followed by X custom fuels records. The records must conform to the latest ‘FMD’ format supported by FlamMap 5 and FARSITE 4 FMD files.

Example:
CUSTOM_FUELS_DATA: 3
28 FM1  0.740  0.000  0.000  0.000  0.000 static 3500 1800 1500  1.000 11 8000 8000                                      Short Grass
29 FM5  1.000  0.500  0.000  0.000  2.000 static 2000 1800 1500  2.000 20 8000 8000                                      Short Brush
30 FM6  1.500  2.500  2.000  0.000  0.000 static 1750 1800 1500  2.500 25 8000 8000                                    Dormant Brush

Switch: CUSTOM_FUELS_UNITS
Usage
CUSTOM_FUELS_UNITS: X
Where X is either “Metric” or “English”. English is the default. Only to be used when CUSTOM_FUELS_DATA switch is used.

Example:
CUSTOM_FUELS_UNITS: English

Switch: RAWS
Usage: 
RAWS: X
Where X is an integer representing the number of RAWS weather records immediately following this entry at one record per line. Each RAWS weather record must have the Year, Month (1-12), DayOfMonth, Time (24 hr format), Temperature, Humidity, Precip Amount, Wind Speed, Wind Direction, and Cloud Cover. The RAWS switch is used to replace the WIND_DATA and WEATHER_DATA switches, combining both into one record type. It also causes Farsite to no longer interpolate weather as was necessary for daily Weather. Farsite will use the most appropriate RAWS record without any interpolation of temperature, humidity, or rainfall.

Example:
RAWS: 5
2011 8 13 1300 87 12 0.00 6 20 90
2011 8 13 1400 90 9 0.00 7 54 82
2011 8 13 1500 91 9 0.00 8 16 75
2011 8 13 1600 90 9 0.00 8 10 67
2011 8 13 1700 90 9 0.00 5 21 60


Switch: RAWS_UNITS
Usage:
RAWS_UNITS: X
Where X is either “Metric” or “English”. English is the default.

Example:
RAWS_UNITS: Metric

Switch: RAWS_ELEVATION
Usage: 
RAWS_ELEVATION: X where X is an integer representing the elevation of the RAWS data in either feet or meters, depending on the RAWS_UNITS type. This switch is required when using RAWS for weather streams.

Example:
RAWS_ELEVATION: 3500

Switch: SPOTTING_SEED
Usage:
SPOTTING_SEED: X
Where X is a positive integer representing the seed to be used to initialize the random number generator for spotting.

Example:
SPOTTING_SEED: 245771

Switch: FARSITE_MIN_IGNITION_VERTEX_DISTANCE
Usage: 
FARSITE_MIN_IGNITION_VERTEX_DISTANCE: X
Where X is a floating point number representing the minimum distance between vertices in an ignition. Ignitions shapes with vertices closer than this distance will be thinned to meet this distance parameter. Too many vertices greatly impacts Farsite performance while yielding no changes in results. This switch should be no smaller than ¼ of the FARSITE_PERIMETER_RES value.
NOTE: Farsite will automatically add vertices to an ignition if the distance between vertices is greater than the FARSITE_PERIMETER_RES value.

Example:
FARSITE_MIN_IGNITION_VERTEX_DISTANCE: 15.0