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NASA Aircraft Enlisted to Fight Wildfires

Tracy Staedter, Discovery News

Photos

Ikhana in Action

Oct. 25, 2007 -- As the California wildfires force residents out of their homes and push firefighters to their limits, a single unmanned aircraft is staying one step ahead.

NASA's Ikhana took off Wednesday morning from Edwards Air Force Base, Calif., on a 10-hour mission to observe seven wildfires still raging in the southern part of the state. Without the need for food, water, bathroom breaks, or fuel in a 24-hour period, the solitary drone used an onboard sensor to collect data, process it into images, and send those via satellite to firefighting command centers in real time.

"Manned airplanes have to land and download the data. You may not get the data for three or four or five hours," said Brent Cobleigh, the mission's project manager, who works out of the NASA Dryden Flight Research Center, Calif.

"We are getting it to the commanders within five to ten minutes," he said.

Getting the images that quickly could save lives. Late this past summer, Ikhana did just that. It was enlisted to image the Zaca Fire in Santa Barbara County. According to Cobleigh, a command post was about to put a group of firefighters on the front line, but didn't realize another fire had started downwind. But when images came in from Ikhana, the firefighters were not deployed.

"They were going to put firefighters between two fires and the data prevented that," said Cobleigh.

Ikhana has an onboard sensor that gathers image data not only in the visible light part of the spectrum but also in the infrared and near-infrared parts. That means it can see in the dark and cut through a column of smoke 30,000 feet thick as though it wasn't there. What it reveals are hot spots, flames, and even temperature differences that can mean the difference between fight or flee.