Corona fire & Palo Verdes, Sayre, Tea fires: how NASA technology helps firefighters battle wildfires

As firefighters in California battle continuing fire outbreaks, they have powerful weapons orbiting above them.

NASA's  "missions to Earth" program offers several resources in fire monitoring and long-term studies of fires. Shown here is a previous Santa Barbara fire, the Gap Fire. Yellow areas depict actively burning areas, while red, pink and blue tones map out burned areas.

In July, NASA sent up a robot aircraft to gather information on more than 300 fires then burning in California.

A remotely piloted aircraft carrying a NASA sensor flew over much of California in mid-July, gathering information that will be used to help fight more than 300 wildfires burning within the state.

The flights by NASA's unmanned Ikhana aircraft are using a sophisticated Autonomous Modular Scanner developed at NASA's Ames Research Center at Moffett Field, Calif. The flights are originating from NASA's Dryden Flight Research Center at Edwards Air Force Base, Calif. Ikhana's onboard sensor can detect temperature differences from less than one-half degree to approximately 1,000 degrees Fahrenheit. The scanner operates like a digital camera with specialized filters to detect light energy at visible, infrared and thermal wavelengths.

NASA and the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Forest Service have partnered to obtain imagery of the wildfires in response to requests from the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection, the California Governor's Office of Emergency Services and the National Interagency Fire Center.

"NASA's emergency imaging gives us immediate information that we can use to manage fires, identify threats and deploy firefighting assets,” California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger said. “I thank NASA for providing us with this important firefighting tool."

NASA also provides quick-response images from instruments flying on both the Aqua and Terra satellites. 

The Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) flies onboard NASA's Aqua and Terra satellites as part of the NASA-centered international Earth Observing System. Both satellites orbit the Earth from pole to pole, seeing most of the globe every day. Onboard Terra, MODIS sees the Earth during the morning, while Aqua MODIS orbits the Earth in the afternoon.

True-color, photo-like imagery and false-color imagery are available within a few hours of being collected, making the system a valuable resource for organizations like the U.S. Forest Service and the international fire monitoring community, who use the images to track fires; the United States Department of Agriculture Foreign Agricultural Service, who monitors crops and growing conditions; and the United States Environmental Protection Agency and the United States Air Force Weather Agency, who track dust and ash in the atmosphere. The science community also uses the system in projects like the Aerosol Robotic Network (AERONET), which studies particles like smoke, pollution, or dust in the atmosphere. 

UPDATE: L.A. County is now in a state of emergency. Officials say that Los Angeles power supply is threatened and rolling blackouts may be required.

Image credit: NASA/Google Earth