weather station raws at ruby lake national wildlife refuge elko county nevada . station pictured is an fts raws with trileg tower this article contains content that is written like an advertisement . please help improve it by removing promotional content and inappropriate external links and by adding encyclopedic content written from a neutral point of view . april 2014 learn how and when to remove this template message forest technology systems ltd extreme environments . extreme ruggedness . extremely simple . type private industry environmental monitoring founded 1980 headquarters victoria bc canada products complete systems for long term remote monitoring of weather and other environmental conditions number of employees 61 2013 website www.ftsenvironmental.com forest technology systems ltd. fts inc. is an environmental monitoring technology company that provides equipment to automate the collection of meteorological and hydrological data to governments . fire weather is still the largest business unit and fts equipment 1 is used for the largest network of dedicated fire weather monitoring equipment in the world . 2 unreliable source fts is based in victoria bc canada with a branch office in blaine washington usa . contents 1 history 2 company profile 3 clients 3.1 fire weather clients 3.2 hydrology clients 3.3 meteorology clients 4 technology 4.1 raws 4.2 portable raws 4.3 fire danger rating 4.4 turbidity sensor 5 references history edit fts was founded in 1980 by bill cave a canadian forest service research technician . 3 cave leveraged the microprocessor clarification needed to create the wr 61 datalogger a battery powered weather data recorder that allowed for the automated collection of weather data . in 1981 fts sold its first commercial product the ts4000 an metband modem operating at 403.100 mhz . previously weather data collection in british columbia was completed manually with technicians required to go to remote locations to collect samples from instrument shelters known as stevenson screens . in 1982 the bc ministry of forestry purchased several of the wr 61 and wr 62 dataloggers from fts enabling the automated collection of weather data . the automated process made it possible to collect additional data as the units were left on site and the data collected at a later date . in 1984 fts developed the rm4000 the first radio modem to integrate a customer s handset inside a ruggedized case . citation needed the modem operated at 600baud and made it possible to retrieve data without physically visiting the weather station . in 1994 to gain entry into the us fire weather network fts created the fws 11 datalogger to fully comply citation needed with the standards outlined by the national fire danger rating system nfdrs . in 1998 fts entered the hydrology market delivering a system of dataloggers and sensors capable of monitoring hydromet and hydrology with a focus on continuous in stream turbidity and sediment monitoring . since 2000 fts has become fully iso9001 certified the first to integrate gps technology with goes communications and began distributing the g4 goes transmitter the first to offer high data rate hdr transmission speeds . they have released the axiom f6 datalogger the only fire weather datalogger with an integrated touchscreen and standardized usb ports for data input and output and software updating . citation needed in 2012 fts released a cs2 capable hdr2 goes transmitter to comply with changes introduced by the national oceanic and atmospheric administration noaa . 4 not in citation given company profile edit while fire weather was the initial focus the hydrology market is now when the fastest growing . 5 fts also acts as a system integrator providing knowledge and products to build systems and networks for a wide variety of meteorological applications . 6 clients edit fts has created partnerships with multiple levels of government as well as within the private sector . fts stations are in use by every one of the top 50 government forest management agencies throughout canada and the united states including fire weather clients edit alaska fire service bc ministry of forests california department of forestry and fire protection u.s. forest service u.s. fish and wildlife service hydrology clients edit usgs new mexico washington state department of transport the water survey of canada minnesota department of agriculture meteorology clients edit parks canada mexican navy texas forest service and united states army corps of engineers joint venture 7 fts has cultivated a relationship with the bc ministry of forests 8 resulting in the creation of canada s largest all fts fire weather monitoring network with 225 stations collecting and contributing data for long term climate and weather monitoring . technology edit fts provides solutions to help monitor and track environmental conditions allowing governments and corporations to use accurate data to predict forest fires and monitor water quality . 1 raws edit for long term remote monitoring of weather and other environmental conditions fts has designed developed and deployed reliable remote automated weather stations raws for clients around the world . these fixed units are purpose built systems made up of components specifically designed to reflect each weather station s and monitoring team s individual needs . the fts fixed raws are able to measure solar radiation with a pyranometer monitor fuel moisture and temperature through an optional fuel stick monitor wind speed and direction gather accumulated precipitation readings through a tipping bucket measure current air temperature and relative humidity recharge the heavy duty battery through solar panels transmit data through the goes satellite the data is recorded by a datalogger and the information is transmitted to the customer s computer system eliminating the need for onsite data collection . portable raws edit the fts quick deploy qd raws are designed to be used in temporary locations 9 offering the same full suite of monitoring applications as the fixed raws in a portable unit . these self contained systems can be set up in as 15 minutes by one person and do not require any tools . the qd systems are commonly used to monitor weather conditions during prescribed burns . fire danger rating edit fire danger indices 10 are used throughout the world to provide land management agencies with the accurate data required to determine the estimated likelihood of fire danger within a specific geographical area . the data used to calculate fire behavior includes fuel conditions local topography and immediate and historic weather conditions . the national fire danger rating system nfdrs is used throughout the united states to provide an accurate assessment of the possible burning conditions for various regions . typically the fire danger rating scale is represented through the use of relevant colors and a simple description low green unlikely that fuels will ignite moderate blue number of fire starts predicted to be low and unlikely to become serious high yellow fires may spread rapidly with increased intensity . potential to become serious and difficult to control very high orange fires may start easily and spread quickly . light fuels take on characteristics of heavier fuels burning quickly and intensely extreme red fires start quickly and easily spread rapidly and burn intensely . fires at this level are difficult to control and require specialized tactics and effective planning . to determine an accurate fire danger rating data acquired through raws is sent to the nfdrs processors . there are three different types of processors 11 used to handle this data a central server used by multiple agencies ; the weather information management system wims private software for office use such as fire weather plus developed and distributed by fts or weather pro developed and distributed by remsoft inc. interagency software of office use firefamily plus wims is used by most federal and state fire management agencies to determine the daily fire danger rating . fts raws transmit hourly fire weather data via satellite to the wims server which is stored for 18 months . the relevant information including min max temperatures and relative humidity are archived in the nifmid for future use . 12 the hourly observation data collected from raws and aws is also archived at the western regional climate centre wrcc in reno nevada . 13 turbidity sensor edit the fts dts 12 turbidity sensor is designed to operate for prolonged periods regardless of the hydro environment . 14 this digital sensor uses a laser diode light source to measure turbidity and includes a self cleaning wiper to ensure accurate readings for up to 12 months and cleaning cavities that prevent sediment from obscuring the optical face of the sensor . a recent german study 15 employed 40 fts dts 12 sensors during a four month campaign to study the potential and effectiveness of a system used to monitor suspended sediment dynamics . references edit a b http pageonepublishing.ca publications dma12 index.html 16 http www.ftsenvironmental.com fireweather raws map http www.bcjobsplan.ca fts forest technology systems http www.fs.fed.us fire planning nist ffp v4 ffp tt weather data sources.pdf http www2.canada.com victoriatimescolonist news business story.html id 95c1f9da 8f0d 4c74 80c7 17203d0c5391 & p 1 dead link http www.vicnews.com business 162963396.html dead link http www.ftsenvironmental.com company customer profiles texas http www.ftsenvironmental.com company customer profiles bcmf http www.environmental expert.com products qd3 quick deploy portable raws 169284 http www.news1130.com 2011 09 20 technology used to predict and prevent forest fires http www.nwccweb.us content products fwx publications understandingnfdrs.pdf http www.nifc.gov national interagency fire management integrated database http www.wrcc.dri.edu http www.ftsenvironmental.com products sensors dts12 mueller philip ; thoss h ; kaempf l ; g ntner a september 2013 . a buoy for continuous monitoring of suspended sediment dynamics . sensors . 13 10 13779 13801 . doi 10.3390 s131013779 . retrieved from https en.wikipedia.org w index.php title forest technology systems & oldid 717457375 categories companies based in british columbiatechnology companies of canadahydrologyhidden categories all articles with dead external linksarticles with dead external links from april 2014articles with a promotional tone from april 2014all articles with a promotional toneall articles lacking reliable referencesarticles lacking reliable references from april 2014wikipedia articles needing clarification from april 2014all articles with unsourced statementsarticles with unsourced statements from april 2014all articles with failed verificationarticles with failed verification from april 2014vague or ambiguous time from april 2014 navigation menu personal tools 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