NASA Archives - Wildfire Today

Satellite views of Canada’s largest 2023 fires

Hunter BasslerNovember 11, 2023November 11, 2023Wildfire2023, Canada, fire spread, NASA

Over 18 million hectares (more than 44 million acres, roughly the size of North Dakota), were burned during Canada’s record-breaking wildfire season this year, according to the Canadian Interagency Forest Fire Centre (CIFFC). Canada usually sees only 2.5 million hectares burn annually. Although the number of fires that burned this year isn’t unusual — 6,595 as of October — many of the fires that did burn spread to “megafire” status.

Newly released NASA satellite imagery shows the day-by-day expansion of some of these megafires. The year’s second-largest fire burned 1,224,938 hectares (4,730 square miles) southeast of Sakami in Quebec; it was fully contained in late July.

NASA satellite imagery also shows the spread of four wildfires in and south of the Northwest Territories. The western-most fire, burning near Fort Nelson, stopped spreading in August after burning 802,575 hectares. It then was reignited by winds in late September and early October and spread to 1,294,096 hectares, becoming the state’s largest wildfire as of November 4. The animation details the fire’s first spread.

Scientists tracked the fires with the new “Fire Events Data Suite” (FEDS), which draws on data from a group of satellites called VIIRS. “The thing that really sets FEDS apart is that the system excels at tracking the daily, incremental spread of fires at 12-hour intervals,” said Yang Chen, an atmospheric scientist at the University of California, Irvine. “That makes near real-time monitoring possible and allows us to generate much more detailed views of fire progression than we have been able to do in the past.”

The new system will reportedly help fire crews pinpoint the parts of a fire perimeter that are actively burning and identify residual heat from the fire that may pose a hazard to wildland firefighters.

NASA offering online training for satellite observations of wildfires

Bill GabbertApril 22, 2021UncategorizedInfrared, NASA, remote sensing, satellite, training

Fire risk, detection, and analysis

Brock Blevins, the Training Coordinator for the NASA Applied Remote Sensing Training Program (ARSET) asked that we pass along an online training opportunity.

NASA’s ARSET will be offering a new online webinar series: Satellite Observations and Tools for Fire Risk, Detection, and Analysis.

The six-part training in English and Spanish will cover how remote sensing and Earth observations can be used to monitor conditions before, during and after fires. Topics covered will include weather and climate conditions, fuel characterization, fire risk, smoke detection, monitoring, forecasting, fire behavior, and post-fire landscapes. This intermediate-level training will provide lectures and case studies focused on the use of Earth observations for operational fire monitoring.

Course Dates in 2021: May 11, 13, 18, 20, 25, 27.

Times and Registration Information:

English Session: 11:00-13:00 EDT (UTC-4): https://go.nasa.gov/3mak1DS
Spanish Session: 15:00-17:00 EDT (UTC-4): https://go.nasa.gov/3wfzlUf

Learning Objectives: By the end of this training attendees will understand:

Terminology regarding type and components of fire (pre, during, post)
Climatic and biophysical conditions pre-, during-, and post-fire
The satellites and instruments used in conducting fire science
The applications of passive and active remote sensing for fires
How to visualize fire emissions and particulate matter
The use of tools for active fires, emissions, and burned areas
How to acquire data for conducting analysis in a given study area

Agenda: http://appliedsciences.nasa.gov/sites/default/files/2021-03/Wildfires_Agenda_0.pdf

Audience: This training is primarily intended for local, regional, state, federal, and international organizations involved in resource and ecosystem management, health and air quality, disaster risk management, disaster response, and those with an interest in applying remote sensing to fire science.

Course Format: Six, 2-hour Parts

Rocket launch ignites brush fire, burns NASA camera

Bill GabbertMay 27, 2018May 28, 2018UncategorizedCalifornia, NASA1 Comment

The photos survived

Above: NASA Photographer Bill Ingalls’s camera after it was caught in brushfire caused by the launch of the NASA/German GRACE-FO from Vandenberg Air Force Base on May 22, 2018. Credit: NASA/Bill Ingalls

A camera set up by a NASA photographer, theoretically in a safe zone, to film a rocket launch at Vandenberg Air Force Base in California was consumed in a brush fire caused by the launch May 22. Firefighters on the base were able to contain the fire fairly quickly, but could not save the camera. However the memory card and the photos survived.

Below is an excerpt from an account by NASA of what happened:

“NASA photographer Bill Ingalls has been shooting for the agency for 30 years. His creativity and efforts to get unique images are well known within the agency and to those who follow it. He knows where to set up his cameras, so what explains the view from the camera, as seen in the GIF [below]?

” “I had six remotes, two outside the launch pad safety perimeter and four inside,” said Ingalls. “Unfortunately, the launch started a grass fire that toasted one of the cameras outside the perimeter.”

“The location and vegetation can be seen in the set-up picture at right. Once the fire reached the camera, it was quickly engulfed. The body started to melt. When Ingalls returned to the site, firefighters were waiting to greet him. Recognizing the camera was destroyed, Ingalls forced open the body to see if its memory card could be salvaged. It could, which is how we can see the fire approaching the camera.

“Ironically, the four cameras set up inside the perimeter were undamaged, as was the other remote. The damaged camera was one of the furthest from the pad, a quarter of a mile away.

“The “toasty” camera, as Ingalls calls it, is likely headed for display somewhere at NASA Headquarters in Washington, DC. Meanwhile, Ingalls himself will soon travel to Kazakhstan to photograph the June 3 landing of the International Space Station’s Expedition 55 crew. He expects that will be a completely normal assignment.”

Using the EXIF data on Mr. Ingalls photos we were able to determine the location of the camera. With Google Earth we found the probable site of the launch pad and created this 3-D map that shows the topography in the area. The camera was at the top of a moderately steep brushy slope that, depending on the weather and the amount of fuel available, may have resulted in a fairly hot fire as it reached the camera. The satellite image was acquired in July, 2016

map launch site camera destroyed — Map showing the position of the NASA camera in relation to the launch site. Click to enlarge. Wildfire Today / Google Earth.

rocket launch brush fire melts NASA camera — The NASA camera before the rocket launch. Credit: NASA/Bill Ingalls

Below is an animated GIF that shows the launch, the fire approaching, and the camera starting to melt. It appears that first, the plastic glare shield that extends in front of the lens softened and drooped over the lens. From the post-fire picture above it looks like the plastic that forms the exterior of the lens assembly melted, and the lens itself may have succumbed as well. Continue reading “Rocket launch ignites brush fire, burns NASA camera”

NASA’s report on developing an improved fire shelter is like the last episode of The Sopranos

Bill GabbertJuly 12, 2016July 12, 2016Uncategorizedfire shelter, NASA, research1 Comment

In this video that NASA published today the agency explains their role in working with the U.S. Forest Service in developing a fire shelter that would hopefully increase the survival chances of a wildland firefighter entrapped in a vegetation fire. NASA is looking at materials they have used or plan to use on spacecraft that could reflect heat, provide some insulation from the outside temperatures which can exceed 2,000 degrees F, is thin and flexible enough to be folded and easily carried, is durable enough to be carried by tactical athletes for years, and weighs less than five pounds. That’s tough criteria.

They have been working on this for about a year, which we have covered here and here. When I saw that they had just published this video, I assumed they would report on their progress, saying perhaps that they had selected a new very promising space age material and would be make a bunch of prototypes for rigorous testing. But no. In the five-minute video they simply say they are looking at materials.

Maybe I’m naive, thinking that when the vast resources of NASA are used to design a fairly straightforward product with no circuit boards or interplanetary radios, after a year their scientists could report at least SOME progress.

The video simply stops after five minutes and 18 seconds. There is no conclusion, no timetable is laid out, and there is no cause for celebration or hope. The video just ends. Like the final episode of The Sopranos.

The last scene in “The Sopranos” series finale.

NASA to launch 200 satellites that will detect wildfires

Bill GabbertNovember 21, 2015November 23, 2015Uncategorizeddetection, Infrared, NASA, satellite

The National Aeronautics and Space Administration plans to launch a network of 200 small satellites that will detect wildfires within 15 minutes after a blaze grows to be at least 35 to 50 feet across. NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory is working on a concept for a network of space-based sensors called FireSat in collaboration with Quadra Pi R2E. Within three minutes of detecting a fire from orbit, FireSat would notify emergency responders in the area of the fire.

Robert Staehle, lead designer of FireSat at JPL, and his team first presented the concept of FireSat in 2011 to the joint NASA/U.S. Forest Service Tactical Fire Remote Sensing Advisory Committee. They spent the subsequent years refining their understanding of fire monitoring needs and technological requirements.

“Such a system has only now become feasible at a reasonable cost, enabled by advances in commercial microelectronics that NASA, JPL and universities have tested in space via CubeSat experiments, and by software technology originally developed to give Mars rovers and Earth orbiters more autonomy in their science observations,” Staehle said.

This sounds like science fiction, but launches should begin in 2017 with a fully operational system of FireSat sensors in space by June of 2018.

CubeSats are 4 inches by 4 inches by 4 inches and weigh about 3 pounds. They are generally built from off the shelf components at a cost of thousands rather than millions of dollars.

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