Cool 'Eyes' Above Help Track Hot Fires Below

Elvia Thompson/Etta Jane Pagani
Headquarters, Washington
(Phone: 202/358-1696/1034) July 22, 2003

Krishna Ramanujan
Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Md.
(Phone: 301/286-3026)

RELEASE: 03-245

COOL "EYES" ABOVE HELP TRACK HOT FIRES BELOW

NASA satellites' "eyes" above Earth are providing
scientists and fire managers with powerful monitoring tools.
NASA is providing the "big picture" needed to understand how
fires behave before, during, and after damage has been done.
A suite of NASA satellites, flying in coordinated fashion,
offers the unparalleled insight only possible from space.

Fire season is underway in the American West, with wildfires
raging in at least 11 states, challenging fire agencies and
their limited resources. Last year, flames engulfed more
than seven million acres of forestland in the United States.

"Fire is a global phenomenon, and using satellites, we have
the ability to monitor fires and better understand the
processes and changes in fire regimes associated with
changes in climate and population," said Chris Justice, a
professor of geography at the University of Maryland,
College Park, Md.

According to Justice, severe fires are occurring due to
changing weather patterns, drought, changing land use and
land management, and in some areas due to fuel accumulation
resulting from suppression of fires. The expansion of
housing into fire prone areas is also increasing risk.
Remote sensing allows scientists to track fires, and related
effects, such as the impact of gases and smoke on the
composition and chemistry of the atmosphere.

In order to understand the complete mechanics of wildfires,
several NASA spacecraft are flying in formation, one behind
the other, separated by only a few minutes, during mid-
morning hours, obtaining data for use by fire managers on
the ground.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) Forest Service,
via its Remote Sensing Applications Center (RSAC) in Salt
Lake City, is obtaining data directly from NASA's Terra and
Aqua satellites.

"We are interested in NASA assets being used for scientific
research, but also for real-world applications," said Vince
Salomonson, a NASA senior scientist at the Goddard Space
Flight Center (GSFC), Greenbelt, Md.

Through these satellites, each fitted with unique
instruments, users like Tom Bobbe, RSAC Manager, may access
specialized data for different phases of a fire. "Satellites
assist fire managers in allocating limited fire fighting
resources effectively," Bobbe said.

Before a fire starts, satellite data can help identify areas
at risk by providing information about vegetation densities
and types, and whether conditions are dry enough to fuel
fires. During a fire data from the latest overpass of NASA
satellites are used to update active fire maps from models
run four times a day, allowing fire agencies to prioritize
aircraft flights for more detailed information about a site.

Instruments, such as the Moderate Resolution Imaging
Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on the Terra spacecraft, provide
daily, nearly global observations of the extent and relative
intensity of fires and altitude estimates of smoke plumes.
Another instrument keeps daily track of the carbon monoxide
plumes from fires and the scope of pollution produced
regionally and globally. After a fire is contained, imagery
from space can help classify the burn area into levels of
severity and prioritize rehabilitation work. The imagery can
also be used over the longer term to keep tabs on the
"green-up" of previously burned areas and to monitor the
effectiveness of various treatments.

NASA is testing a semi-autonomous system, dubbed "sensor
web." Various satellites will have the ability to
communicate with each other, and provide interactive layers
of images. One satellite might detect a fire starting and
then signal another satellite to take detailed or
specialized images for better monitoring. NASA helped
develop unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) technology and sensors
for detailed fire observation. Collaborating with NASA, USDA
is working to develop techniques for UAVs to assist with
fire response and mapping.

For more information about "eyes in the sky" on the
Internet, visit:

http://www.gsfc.nasa.gov/topstory/2003/0703esufire.html

For NASA's MODIS Rapid Response active fire maps, visit:

http://activefiremaps.fs.fed.us/index.html

For information about NASA's MODIS Land Rapid Response
System, visit:

http://rapidfire.sci.gsfc.nasa.gov/


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