NASA global satellite system has applications for monitoring wildfires
During the 1998 Florida wildfires, firefighters in Brevard County–battling wildfires along a 125-mile stretch between Jacksonville and Titusville–turned to the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) for help. They asked Gene Feldman, a scientist at NASA`s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, to use satellite imagery to help determine the extent of the fires, which had burned more than 425 square miles and had forced thousands of Floridians to evacuate.
Within minutes, NASA`s ocean-observing satellite had projected on the computer screen the entire east coast of Florida. “I was truly amazed,” Feldman recalls. “The entire east coast of Florida was a line of fires.”
NASA`s earth-observing satellites (the ocean-monitoring satellite is just one in the system) originally had been designed to monitor global climate change. It has since been discovered, however, that these satellites are also able to provide firefighters, emergency planners, and forest managers with a new perspective on large fires. NASA scientists are seizing the opportunity to use the satellites to monitor fires by exploring ways to expedite the flow of data to the scientific community and the general public.
In addition to monitoring the size, frequency, and impact of large-scale fires worldwide, the system can also identify hot spots ripe for the outbreak of uncontrolled wildfires and help land managers to keep track of “prescribed” fires (those set–under supervision–to clear out dead underbrush and other vegetation). Moreover, Feldman explains, these earth-observing satellites, which measure atmospheric chemicals, are helpful to health officials concerned about air quality, especially during a fire.
Scientists at Goddard and the University of Virginia recently established a new global fire monitoring web site at http:// modarch.gsfc.nasa.gov/fire_atlas/fires.html). The site gives current information related to prevailing fire situations around the globe and draws on satellite resources from several U.S. agencies and international partners. It also includes analysis of data from the early and mid-1990s and a summary of future global fire-monitoring capabilities.
In early 1999, the space agency is expected to launch two new earth-observing satellites, which, NASA says, “will expand its capacity for near real-time fire monitoring while more accurately measuring various emissions.” According to Tony Janetos, NASA scientist, “Global fire monitoring at this level has never been done before. Whenever we get word of a fire, we`ll start monitoring it and putting images on the site.”
For additional information, contact David E. Steitz at NASA headquarters, Washington, DC, at (202) 358-1730 or Lynn Chandler, Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, MD, at (301) 286-9016. n
