Ignition of forest tracts by a high-altitude source of radiant energy

The problem of initiation of large-scale forest fires induced by technogenic catastrophes is solved in an axisymmetric formulation. Results of numerical calculations are given which imply that the ignition mechanism in this case is the same as for collisional catastrophes. A comparison of the limiting dimensions of ignition zones for nuclear charges of different energy yields shows good agreement between two-dimensional and quasi-one-dimensional approximations.