NASA Imaging Sensor Prepares for Western Wildfire Season

Thermal-infrared imaging sensors on NASA’s Ikhana unmanned research aircraft recorded this image of the Grass Valley / Slide Fire near Lake Arrowhead / Running Springs in the San Bernardino Mountains of Southern California just before noon Oct. 25. The 3-D processed image is a colorized mosaic of images draped over terrain, looking east. Active fire is seen in yellow, while hot, previously burned areas are in shades of dark red and purple. Unburned areas are shown in green hues. Image credit: NASA/U.S. Forest Service

Airborne imaging technology NASA developed 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…

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Image Source: NASA