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."

Comments

Same as Predator

[Mononoke]

NASA's Ikhana is the same aircraft as the Predator, except it's being used here to save lives."

The Predator's primary function is to save lives.

Re:Same as Predator

[pete-classic]

I thought its primary function was to gather intelligence, which hopefully has the effect of saving American, allied, and non-combatant's lives. But it does that by letting us kill enemy combatants better, which seems different on its face from what this article talks about.

-Peter

Re:not to be hatin but...

[theheadlessrabbit]

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.