REGION: Fire agencies benefiting from NASA technology
0:00 PM PST on Wednesday, January 19, 2011
NASA technology used on the Mars Rover is helping California firefighters map the movement of blazes in real time and quickly dispatch ground crews where they are needed most.
The development is part of a National Aeronautics and Space Administration information-sharing mission with firefighting agencies. Last month, NASA and Cal Fire, the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection, signed a five-year agreement to test and develop advanced remote-sensing technology.
"It can tell us where the most heat is being generated (in a wildfire), if there are any hot spots that haven't been detected and allow us to send crews in that direction in very short order," said Kevin Guerrero, Cal Fire's deputy chief for operations support in Sacramento.
Quick action grows more important in Southern California, where catastrophic wildfires have become commonplace in recent years. Fires are expected to intensify with climate change, which will cause earlier snowmelt and drought in the Southwest. And though 2010 was a mild season because of rains, that break is not expected to last.
Under the NASA program, information is gathered by sophisticated thermal-imaging sensors affixed to the wing of a drone and, most recently, inside manned aircraft. The sensors are more accurate than current versions, which were developed for military use and can't handle the high temperatures that come with fires, said Vince Ambrosia, the NASA scientist who developed the technology.
NASA's drone and the piloted B200 King Air are operated at the Dryden Flight Research Center at Edwards Air Force Base near the town of Mojave.
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