NASA fights wildfires from the sky
Last week, I wrote that NASA was checking coastal waters from space. It seems that NASA wants to appear as a very environmental-friendly organization. It is helping the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) with airplanes monitoring great lakes algae. It also is collaborating with the U.S. Forest Service on wildfire imaging missions. NASA is using an unmanned aircraft named 'Ikhana' -- a Native American word from the Choctaw Nation meaning intelligent, conscious or aware -- for imaging wildfires in California, Idaho, Montana and Wyoming. Images collected from the different sensors onboard are transmitted via satellite to a ground station where they are analyzed and transmitted as a Google Earth overlay to fire experts.
The $6 million Ikhana aircraft, which has a wingspan of 66 feet and is 36 feet long, can collect data during flights lasting up to 30 hours without refueling. You can see above a picture of Ikhana flying over California. "With its sensor pod under its left wing, NASA's remotely piloted Ikhana unmanned aircraft cruises over California during the Western States Fire Mission." (Credit: Jim Ross, for NASA, August 9, 2007) Here is a link to several larger versions of this photo. And you'll find many more pictures in this photo gallery.
Here are some quotes from an article by Brittany Sauser for Technology Review, "Mapping Wildfires" (August 31, 2007) about the thermal-infrared sensors. "The new equipment includes a 12-channel spectral sensor that runs from the visible spectrum into the reflected infrared and mid-infrared spectrum. Two of these channels were built specifically for the thermal portion of the spectrum and were highly calibrated to be able to distinguish hot spots. This is what makes it an effective wildfire imaging sensor, says Vince Ambrosia, an engineer at NASA ARC and the principal investigator of the fire missions."
Sauser also describes how images are analyzed. "The collection of images taken by the scanner is then processed onboard the aircraft in real time, and the data is automatically sent via satellite to a ground station, where it is incorporated into a geographic information system or map package. For the current fire missions, researchers are using Google Earth as their visualization tool. The data is displayed as an array of colors based on their intensity. The temperature ranges might be displayed as red, green, and blue, for example, with the hottest objects colored red. The system's ability to continuously send images of the fire allows researchers to better predict its next move. This helps fire fighters determine where to deploy resources."
In "Ikhana UAV Gives NASA New Science and Technology Capabilities," NASA adds that the unmanned aircraft system was built by General Atomics Aeronautical Systems Inc. (GA-ASI) of San Diego and gives more details about the aircraft. "More than 400 pounds of sensors can be carried internally and over 2,000 pounds in external wing pods. Ikhana is powered by a Honeywell TPE 331-10T turbine engine and is capable of reaching altitudes well above 40,000 feet. This aircraft is the first production Predator B equipped with an upgraded digital electronic engine controller (DEEC) developed by Honeywell and GA-ASI that will make Ikhana five to 10 percent more fuel efficient."
Finally, in this Ikhana fact sheet, NASA gives more information about how the unmanned aircraft is controlled. "NASA has also purchased a ground control station and satellite communication system for uplinking flight commands and downlinking aircraft and mission data. The ground control station is installed in a mobile trailer and, in addition to the pilot's remote "cockpit," includes computer workstations for scientists and engineers. All the aircraft systems are mobile, making Ikhana ideal for missions conducted from remote sites around the globe."
Sources: NASA news release, August 22, 2007; and various websites
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