[Sound of electrical sparks, sizzle of burning cigarette]
[Forest fire crackles, thunder echoes]
[Sound of wildfire rises] Narrator: A wildfire is born …
and teams of people leap into action,
sounding the alarm for nearby residents, providing local fire observations,
and getting ready to battle the flames from ground and sky.
These front-line responders do the heavy lifting
when it comes to fighting and managing fires, but they’re often
helped by the view from higher up. [rythmic music builds]
From late spring to early fall, two US Forest Service planes flying
at 10,000 feet, crisscross the Western United States chasing fires.
Sometimes mapping dozens of fires in one night,
they help identify a fire’s perimeter
and any outlying fires or hotspots, andprovide
information to the Fire Management Teams on the ground.
Meanwhile, further above, NASA and NOAA satellites
provide a powerful global view of active fires across the entire planet.
Satellites can fill in the gaps
between ground and airborne observations, identifying fires
soon after they start, and detecting fires
that nothing else can – like in remote stretches of wilderness –
– or estimating a fire’s perimeter when planes aren’t available.
These fire observations from air and space [crackling of wildfire]
can help responders decide where to send firefighters and other resources.
File footage voiceover: Three, two, one
Main engine start, and liftoff of the Atlas
rocket with the Terra flagship of the Earth Observing System.
Narrator: And since NASA designed and launched the first satellite instruments to specifically measure fires
20 years ago. satellite fire data has also been used in many other ways.
including detecting smoke plumes, forecasting and
measuring air quality downwind from a fire,
measuring burned area after fires are extinguished, and looking at trends
in global fire frequency and severity.
NASA and NOAA scientists are working to leverage that satellite data
with new airborne field campaigns featuring new technologies
for measuring wildfires, so that we can all make
better decisions about how to respond when fire strikes.
[music fades]