Fire Focus in the Atlantic Forest of the State of Rio de Janeiro

Abstract The study evaluated the occurrence of fire focus in the remnants of the Atlantic Forest in the state of Rio de Janeiro, from a climatic perspective. The data obtained from the database BDQueimadas, from June 1998 to December 2015, underwent descriptive, exploratory and parametric statistics. The highest temperature records were identified in the 2010/2011 (16.06%) and 2014/2015 (41% and 24%) cycles. The total percentage (57, 30%) of the time series indicated strong and weak categories, as La Niña and El Niño. The parametric test showed that August, September and October had the highest temperature records, but a similar thermal pattern was found during April and June, in the same years. As for the regions, the highest temperature recorded, according to the spatial evaluation of the fire focus distribution, was for Central-South Fluminense and Médio Paraíba. Our results demonstrate that through access to a relatively simple database it is possible to obtain objective information that can be used for the prevention of damage caused by fires. With the expected evolution of thermal sensors and data-processing algorithms, it is very likely that we can skillfully discriminate fire focus related to fires from those indicating, for example, industry activity or relevant specificities.