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NASA Aircraft Enlisted to Fight Wildfires

Tracy Staedter, Discovery News

Photos

California Wildfire Map

"An incident commander can move resources to combat that part of the event that he's dealing with or move troops or firefighters out of harm's way," said Vincent Ambrosia, project principal investigator at NASA Ames, whose team developed the primary sensor onboard Ikhana.

Flying between about 23,000 feet and 25,000 feet, the aircraft scans the terrain back and forth in parallel lines. The sensor collects data continuously. In the current 10-hour mission, the device will gather enough information to create between 50 to 70 images, said Cobleigh, each revealing more than 36 square miles of land.

The data is processed on the aircraft, up-linked to a satellite and then downloaded to a ground station. From there it's delivered to a computer server at NASA Ames. The imagery is then combined with Google Earth maps. Command center personnel can view the images on their computer screens and then delegate local firefighters accordingly.

For this mission, the Ikhana team flew the craft over each of seven fires at least twice on Wednesday. And it's ready to do the same on Thursday or Friday, if necessary.

Once its wildfire days are done this season, Ikhana will tackle more humble pursuits: airborne sensing of the atmosphere, ocean and ground.

But next season, when the Santa Ana winds begin to blow again, Ikhana could be back on the job.

Related Links:

NASA Ames Research Center

NASA's Ikhana photo collection

Howstuffworks.com: Wildfires

NASA satellite images of the California wildfires