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NASA Helps To Make Firefighting a Little Safer and Easier NASA is expanding the United States Forest Service's firefighting toolkit. New technologies provide better images faster and more often. This information allows firefighters to access wildfires more quickly and allocate precious resources. NASA hopes this new technology will help make the business of firefighting a little easier and safer. This
year, fires consumed over 2.3 million acres in the United States
through August 21, 2003, the midpoint of the country's annual fire
season.
Satellites sound the fire alarm on wildfires. New software, developed by NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena Calif., links several of NASA's Earth Science satellites together to form a virtual web of sensors with the ability to monitor the globe far better than just one satellite. An imaging instrument flying on one satellite can detect a fire or other hazard and automatically instruct a different satellite to take a closer look. If the images show that a potential hazard does exist, then the responding satellite provides data to ground controllers. They pass the data to the U.S. Forest Service, or to an interested science team. This information allows firefighters to rapidly respond to ongoing events, such as fires, floods, and mudslides. Using sensor web technology means investigators now use nearer to real-time information on what's happening. More information-JPL
Though
yelling "Fire!" in a crowded theater may be prohibited,
getting the message to firefighters about forest fires is essential.
NASA teamed up with the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Forest
Service to develop a digital wireless communication system that
allows the real-time transmission of remotely sensed data from an
airplane to a ground station. This quick relay of information about
wildfires improves the likelihood that firefighters can handle the
fire before it grows even more dangerous. Getting To The Heat Of The Fire
One of the latest high-tech wild firefighting tool, unmanned remote control airplanes fly over fires and broadcast thermal images to fire managers. Fire managers use these images to assess direction and speed. This new tool increases the efficiency of fire monitoring by speeding the access to information and imagery. More information-AMES
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