A concept for a satellite that would be dedicated to detecting new wildfires.
Continue readingResearchers design satellite to detect wildfires — a step toward the Holy Grail of Firefighter Safety?
Infrared mapping, the New York Times on Lassen’s Reading Fire, and more Yarnell Hill articles
Several online articles came to our attention today that you may be interested in.
New York Times
The Times has an excellent article about last year’s Reading Fire in Lassen National Park in northern California. It was a fire use fire that started on July 23, 2012, escaped the maximum management area, and burned outside the park, blackening a total of 28,000 acres. The author, Paul Tullis, oddly, but in a very interesting way, also writes about fire behavior research being conducted at the Missoula Fire Lab. Checking out the article is worth it, if only for the great photos taken by photographer Richard Barnes.
More articles about the Yarnell Hill Fire
The monthly magazines are now coming out with their articles about the fire on which 19 members of the Granite Mountain Hotshots died. They pale in comparison to the good one that was in Outside Magazine, but if you are obsessed with that multiple fatality incident, like many of us are, you’ll want to see the articles in Popular Mechanics and Men’s Journal.
The USFS infrared mapping program
Earthzine has an article that does a good job of summarizing the U.S. Forest Service program that operates two fixed wing aircraft that map ongoing wildfires. Here is an excerpt:
…The two IR aircraft are a twin-engine Beechcraft Super King Air B-200 and a small jet, the Cessna Citation Bravo II. Both aircraft take off at between 7-9 p.m. and continuing mapping runs until 4 a.m.
Mapping flights follow a grid plotted out in advance, at an altitude of 10,000- 14,000 feet. From that height, each pass scans a swath 6.5 miles wide. For accuracy, passes overlap each other by 25-30 percent. Flying at 300 miles per hour, a map produced by the Super King is accurate by plus or minus 1 foot. The faster moving jet is only slightly less precise – providing maps accurate to plus or minus 10 feet.
The imagery is sent in real-time to interpreters on the ground while the aircraft are still making runs over a fire. Some 48 interpreters are scattered across the country and will have completed maps on the screens of firefighter command centers before the aircraft make their last landings of the night.
Forest Service receives new airborne sensor from NASA
The U.S. Forest Service has been using dedicated fixed wing aircraft with infrared sensors to detect and map wildland fires since the 1960s or 1970s. So I was intrigued after reading a news release from NASA about an airborne sensor that will help gather information about wildland fires. Here is an excerpt:
NASA Imaging Sensor Prepares for Western Wildfire Season
WASHINGTON – Airborne imaging technology developed at NASA and transferred to the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Forest Service (USFS) in 2012 is being tested to prepare for this year’s wildfire season in the western United States.
The Autonomous Modular Sensor (AMS) is a scanning spectrometer designed to help detect hot-spots, active fires, and smoldering and post-fire conditions. Scientists at NASA’s Ames Research Center in Moffett Field, Calif., and USFS engineers installed it on a Cessna Citation aircraft that belongs to the Forest Service. The USFS plans to use it in operational fire imaging and measurement…
Having experience as an Infrared Interpreter (IRIN), converting data on infrared images to maps so that the information can be used by firefighters on the ground, I wanted more information about how this sensor will be used in wildfire management. I knew that the person with the answers would be Woody Smith, an Avionics and Infrared Technician with the U.S. Forest Service’s National Infrared Operations (NIROPs) unit. I sent him some questions by email and here is his response:
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(Woody said:)
The main purpose for the transfer of the AMS Sensor to the USFS is for additional remote sensing needs. Missions such as forest health sensing, post fire analysis, and earth mapping. The AMS has the capability to map wildfires and will be used as an additional system in a third aircraft if one becomes available.
But to answer your questions in order:
Is this replacing previous sensor(s)?
No. This will be an additional system to enhance our capabilities for busy seasons. Though for now, it “lives” on the Citation (N144Z) for testing and comparison purposes. Once the NIROPs Unit begins to get busy we will remove this system and reinstall the Phoenix System. We anticipate using the AMS sensor during the “off season” for earth observation and post fire analysis.
What is the advantage of this sensor?
The AMS Sensor has 16 channels that can be used to map the earth simultaneously. Most of the channels are in the visual range and color IR. There are 4 used for thermal IR (TIR) and as soon as I get permission from the guys at NASA I will send you a briefing paper that explains the origin and uses of the AMS. For now, the USFS intends to map some vegetation areas for various other government agencies and fly real time comparison flights over wild land fires. We need to assess its operational capabilities. One advantage is the capability to perform scientific earth observation for post fire analysis while collecting and mapping wild land fires.
On the new AMS system, is liquid nitrogen still used to cool the sensor, like on the Phoenix System currently being used?
No. The TIR (thermal infrared) channels use sterling coolers and thermo electric (TE) coolers. But as the Phoenix System will hold LN2 for over 16 hours we only have to fill them once a day before the night’s flights begin. (Sterling coolers and thermo-electric cooling is very expensive while liquid nitrogen is very cheap!)
How many sensors does the USFS IR system use?
We currently own 6 ea 2-channel thermal IR scanner systems. 2 from Daedalus and 4 that we developed ourselves known as the Phoenix Wild Land Fire Mapping Systems. We could field 3 Phoenix Systems simultaneously but we only have 2 aircraft capable of carrying IR equipment so we use the additional hardware as spares for “quick repairs” during the fire season.
Will similar AMS sensors be installed on other IR aircraft?
No.
Are there any major changes to the Infrared program for this year?
Two exciting changes coming have not yet been implemented. The first is improved heat detection and the second is with the quality of the image itself. The signal processing changes we made last year has already vastly improved the heat detection and image quality as well as sped up the delivery time. But due to a busy year (2012) we are lagging behind our anticipated schedule. As soon as these are implemented I will send you an email.
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Here is a link to a Word document with a (very) technical description of the AMS sensor.
New Landsat satellite provides images of Galena fire
The newest Landsat satellite has successfully achieved orbit and is being checked out by NASA for a few months before it is turned over to the U.S. Geological Survey and renamed Landsat 8. We were overdue to get a new Landsat — the last one was launched in 1999.
The image above is a test that was distributed by NASA before the instruments on the spacecraft had been fully checked out and calibrated. It was acquired on March 16, the day after the Galena Fire started. If you go to the NASA site and click on the button that says “VIEW IMAGE COMPARISON”, after a few seconds a slider will appear on the image which you can drag left and right to see data acquired by different sensors on the satellite. Very cool.
This spacecraft has additional sensors and technology new to the Landsat series. I may be the only one interested in this since I used to work closely with the US Forest Service Infrared aircraft used for mapping fires, but the older Landsats had a technology similar to the USFS Infrared planes, and used a scanning technique of reflecting the imagery off a rotating 3-sided mirror onto a sensor. A row of data was recorded with each pass of one side of the mirror. The excerpt below from NASA explains the new technology:
The Landsat Data Continuity Mission builds on this foundation and brings with it two advanced science instruments that will deliver more data — and clearer images — than ever before. The Operational Land Imager (OLI) is designed to measure visible, near infrared, and short wave infrared wavelengths, while the Thermal Infrared Sensor (TIRS) monitors temperatures on the Earth’s surface. Using what scientists call a “push-broom” approach, these detectors will record a constant stream of data as the spacecraft passes 438 miles overhead in a near-circular, near-polar orbit.
“All earlier Landsat sensors, on Landsats 1 through 7, were called ‘whisk-broom sensors.’ Each one of these sensors used a mirror that oscillated back and forth,” Irons said.
“In contrast, both of the sensors on the Landsat Data Continuity Mission, OLI and TIRS, instead of using an oscillating mirror, they will use long arrays of detectors across the focal plane of each instrument.”
During each satellite pass, OLI and TIRS will observe and collect image data for a 185-kilometer-wide swath of land. As Earth rotates beneath the satellite’s orbit, subsequent seams of land will come into view, providing a complete picture of the planet’s surface every 16 days.
I’m thinking that the new thermal infrared sensor will enable Landsat 8 to obtain better images of active vegetation fires than we have previously seen from satellites. By the time the spacecraft acquired the test image on the second day of the Galena Fire, there was probably not a great deal of heat left on the fire, which burned mostly in light fuels, so it looks more like a burn scar than an active fire.
Thanks go out to Daniel
Infrared mapping crews were busy last night
The technicians and pilots staffing the two U.S. Forest Service infrared (IR) aircraft mapping wildland fires were busy Tuesday night as usual.
Here is a list of the fires they worked last night:
- Pine Creek
- Cache Creek
- Millie
- Powell SBW Complex
- Nineteen Mile
- Mustang
- Elevation Mountain
- Fort Complex
- Porcupine
- Halstead
- Bagley
- Trinity Ridge
- Mcguire
They work at night because that is when there is a greater difference between the heat of the fire and everything else. After they collect the data from thousands of feet over the fire, they transmit it by radio, Aircell, to computer servers on the ground where it is retrieved by Infrared Interpreters who analyze it and produce maps showing the perimeter of the heat that was detected, including spot fires outside the main perimeter and concentrations of intense heat, or areas with little or none. This is valuable information for the Planning and Operations Sections staffing the fire who make the information available for firefighters at their morning operational period briefings.
The USFS typically operates two IR planes during fire season, a Cessna Citation and a King Air B-200, but can call up a third, an old King Air 90, if things get really busy. They have also contracted with private vendors to provide IR services if the government aircraft can’t handle the workload.
More information about National Infrared Operations.
South Dakota: White Draw and Parker Peak fires
The map above shows the fire perimeters (the red line) that were detected by a fixed-wing infrared mapping flight at 10:22 p.m. MT, July 2, 2012. The red squares represent heat detected by a satellite at 12:50 p.m. MT, July 3, 2012. The White Draw fire is on the left, and the Parker Peak fire is on the right. The fires are five to eight miles northeast of Edgemont, SD.
Brian Scott, spokesperson for the fire, told us at 5:25 p.m. on Tuesday that today fire crews have been busy conducting planned burnouts to help tie in some fire lines on the White Draw fire. It has also expanded on the north, he said, and is putting up a large amount of smoke.
Monday night the Incident Management Team called the fire 50% contained and said it had burned 4,950 acres.
After a much dryer and warmer than normal spring, firefighters are dealing with flashy fuels that ignite rapidly. Hazardous steep terrain and rattlesnakes are added additional “watch out” conditions for them to deal with.
Infrared video of wildfire in North Carolina
Michael Crouse saw our “one liner” from April 17 about a photo gallery of multiple master streams and a tower-ladder being used on a brush fire in North Carolina and sent us a link to the video below shot from what appears to be a police helicopter in Wilmington, North Carolina. The photo gallery and the video are of the same April 16 fire.
Michael said:
…It has our (NCFS) scout plane, A star helicopter, and the contracted Fire Boss all working the fire. It was shot with a FLIR camera from a helicopter. They switch over to the thermal and it is amazing footage.
At the 2:43 minute mark, the video switches to thermal infrared and suddenly the extent and perimeter of the fire are very, very obvious. The video also catches water drops from a single engine air tanker and a helicopter.
Thanks Michael.
And below is more video, this time shot from the ground by a Captain in the Wilmington Fire Department, of the same fire burning intensely on both sides of 17th Street.
Continue reading
CalFire to use NASA technology for remote sensing of wildfires
NASA and CalFire have signed an agreement that allows CalFire to use NASA’s remote sensing technology to “cooperatively explore the use and future transfer of advanced fire sensing technology”.
Here is an excerpt from a news release. The entire release follows.
NASA has developed an innovative visible, infrared and thermal sensor called the NASAAutonomous Modular Scanner (AMS). The scanner has operated on both NASA’s IkhanaPredator B Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) and the manned NASA B200 King Air bothoperated by the Dryden Flight Research Center at Edwards, Calif. The scanner provides real-time wildfire imaging data over large-scale disaster events in the western United States andparticularly in California. The innovations include performing all processing on-board theaircraft autonomously and relaying the information through a satellite communications system todisaster managers located anywhere in the world.
Click on “Fullscreen” to see a larger version.
Firewatch Cobra helicopter
The U.S. Forest Service has two helicopters they call Firewatch Cobras which are retrofitted Bell AH-1 Cobra attack helicopters. The USFS has them outfitted with infrared sensors so that they can be used for close in intelligence support for ground troops, GIS mapping, real time color video, geo-referenced infrared, and infrared downlink. In addition to intelligence gathering, they are also used as a platform for an Air Attack Group Supervisor (ATGS) or a Helicopter Coordinator (HLCO).
This year one of the ships is based at Redding, California, and the other is just outside of Boise, Idaho at Lucky Peak Helibase. They are owned by the USFS, and staffed by an ATGS, but they are contractor supported and maintained. (Could this be the model for a new fleet of modern, safe, air tankers? Government-owned and contractor supported?)
The helicopter module includes a “Data Van” staffed with a GIS technician who can use the shape files produced on the helicopter to make perimeter maps of the fire. The van is also used for receiving and viewing the downlinked live video feed from the helicopter.
Specifications of the Firewatch Cobras (from the Firewatch Cobra web site)
Propulsion
- Number of Engines: 1 [a newer version currently being used by the Marines has two engines]
- Engine: T53-L-703
- Horsepower: 1800
Performance
- Range: 362 miles
- Cruise Speed: 166 mph
- Max Speed: 219 mph
- Climb Rate: 1,680 feet per minute
- Ceiling: 10,800 feet
N109Z was manufactured in 1969. N107Z was manufactured in 1983.
Los Angeles County wants to use satellites to detect fires
The Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors is lobbying the U.S. military to use their missile warning satellites to detect wildfires in their county. Some of the members of their Board have the opinion that the most populous county in the United States with 9.8 million people, most with cell phones, has a problem with the early detection of wildfires. The Board has previously considered automated detection systems on mountain peaks that would detect heat or smoke, but now they seem to be focused on satellites.
Here is an excerpt from an article at spacenews.com:
“The infrared sensors constantly look for the telltale signature of a flame from a missile launch, with automatic analysis of the data,” according to the letter signed by all five county supervisors. “Since a missile flame has characteristics similar to a wildland fire, the satellites should be able to detect forest and brush fires just as effectively.”
U.S. Air Force Defense Support Program (DSP) satellites, which scan the globe every 10 seconds, have proved their ability to spot wildfires. In 1994 and 1995, the U.S. Air Force participated in the Hazard Support Program, according to Anthony Roake, spokesman for the Air Force Space Command in Colorado Springs, Colo. That program, led by the U.S. National Reconnaissance Office, combined information derived from U.S. military and civil satellites to detect wildfires in the United States and volcanic activity around the globe and reported the results to local agencies. Additional testing of the Hazard Support Program continued in the late 1990s, said Richard Davies, executive director of the Western Disaster Center, a nonprofit research organization based in Mountain View, Calif.
In spite of successful demonstrations, the Hazard Support System was halted in 2001 when the military was ready to hand off the program but no civil federal agency offered the funding needed to operate and maintain it, government officials said. Nearly a decade later, the necessary ground equipment still exists to enable the DSP constellation to assist in wildfire detection; however, a period of operational testing would be required to prove its utility, according to Dee Pack, remote sensing department director for the Aerospace Corp. of El Segundo, Calif. “Since 2000, the technology has been used for other applications. It could be used for fire detection again if the government wanted to do that.”
There are definitely some remote areas in North America that could benefit from a satellite-based fire detection system. Spread across the continent, the cost per acre would most likely be small, especially since the satellites are already in operation. Multi-tasking these missile detection satellites could be in our best interests. The “civilian agencies” that refused to step up in 2001 to help make this happen need to reconsider.