Cool "Eyes" Above Help Track Hot Fires Below

Image from Aqua's MODIS instrument of several large fires burning across the Pacific Northwest. Marked with red outlines, the largest of the fires in the scene is the Fawn Peak Complex Fire in northern Washington (image center), which produced a large plume of smoke on June 22, 2003.

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.

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 .

For the complete article on NASA satellites assisting with fire management, go to: http://www.gsfc.nasa.gov/topstory/2003/0703esufire.html