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NASA Drone's Sensors Battle California Wildfires
An anonymous reader writes "California is burning, but according to this article advanced sensors on NASA's Ikhana unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) can detect exact temperatures (within half a degree) through the smoke, enabling the drone to spot for the firefighters battling the more than 300 wildfires. NASA's Ikhana is the same aircraft as the Predator, except it's being used here to save lives."
Primary Function: Armed reconnaissance, airborne surveillance and target acquisition
- http://www.af.mil/factsheets/factsheet.asp?fsID=122
So the air force disagrees with you...
Sure there's the benefit of not having a pilot in the danger zone, but that's secondary. The primary function isn't to save lives, it's to do the three things above.
the problem is forests are supposed to burn down from time to time.
50 years of 'only you can prevent forest fires', strict anti-fire laws, and fast acting fire departments have caused forest debris to build up, resulting in these super infernos.
more frequent fires = less dangerous fires, more nutrients in the soil, young trees releasing more oxygen into the air, etc.
an automatic system would seem to work for a little while, but it would only delay the problem. eventually an ueber-inferno will come through and the system will be useless.
-I only code in BASIC.-
"Putting out forest fires has proven to be yet another form of short term thinking that gets us into a lot more trouble in the long term. Sometimes you really do have to destroy a forest in order to save it."
That's a bit simplistic, the idea is to burn the undergrowth not destroy the forrest.
And did you exchange a walk on part in the war for a lead role in a cage? - Pink Floyd.
Ya, they did this last year when Southern California was on fire. All the pretty pictures of the San Bernardino mountains (next to my house) were from a NASA UAV. It was picking out the hotspots for the planes and choppers flying out of the Hot Shots place at San Bernardino Int'l Airport down the street.
The USDA Forest Service Research Station in California has been doing this for a few years now posting rectified images on their website for fire suppression and anyone else to view. Images are rectified and draped over maps showing temperatures in false color and can be seen with Google Earth and with Zoomify, a Flash applet. The images are converted to shape files for Forest Service use, too.
The aircraft, a Piper Navajo light twin engine aircraft, is unfortunately out of service for engine replacement.
Nate