 The fires raging in Indonesia are among the worst in almost two decades and Central Kalimantan on the island of Borneo is one of the most affected areas. Efforts have been made to try to put out the fires and in the past year seasonal rains doused the flames, but 2015 is a dry El Nino year, so it's not clear when the fires will be extinguished. The root causes are extremely complex. Experts agree that finding long-term solutions and avoiding more fires in the future requires a clear strategy based on facts. Well, it's really important for countries in general to be able to measure what's happening. If you can't assess the impact, you don't know how big of a problem you have. Louis Verchot is one of ten scientists who traveled to the provincial capital, Polancaraya, for a workshop led by the Center for International Forestry Research, C4. During the workshop, the scientists demonstrated the latest technology used to show the impact of the fires on the atmosphere. The field equipment measures everything from thermal imaging from the air to soil thickness and surface elevation changes and smoke levels. We've got an instrument to measure particles, and these include the particles that can get into the human respiratory system when you breathe them in. If you're here without the mask, you are breathing much of that smoke into your lungs, which is obviously extremely hazardous for your health. Many of the fires are in peatland forests, which have been drained, cleared and burned for oil palm, as well as large and small-scale agriculture. The dried-out peat ignites easily and burns underground. Peatland is an ecosystem which has very high carbon storage. As you can stand there, you can feel how pumpy it is, underneath here is this huge amount of organic material stored for thousands of years. GeoRadar can measure the depth of the peat without a core sampling, making it easier to get very detailed environmental information. The bigger picture is in terms of greenhouse gas release, so a very deep peatland has the potential to reduce a very large amount of carbon gases. The aim of the field training is to help local partners develop their expertise so they can find solutions to the fire crisis. With GPR, we can see the water table, the distribution, where the water table is still good, where it has been changed, can be used for policy. A continual source of research and information is also needed by decision makers to ensure the best strategies are initiated. As policies are put in place, it's also important to quantify the impact of those policies so that you can assess whether the policies are actually having the desired outcome. The situation I've ever encountered for biomass burning or for any form of combustion, then that's environment.