IGNITION OF FOREST TRACTS BY A HIGH-ALTITUDE SOURCE OF RADIANT ENERGY

The problem of initiation of large-scale forest fires induced by techn ogenic catastrophes is solved in an axisymmetric formulation. Results of numerical calculations are given which imply that the ignition mech anism in this case is the same as for collisional catastrophes. A comp arison of the limiting dimensions of ignition zones for nuclear charge s of different energy yields shows good agreement between, two-dimensi onal and quasi-one-dimensional approximations.