Finding hotspots: an autonomous sensor developed by NASA proves its worth in firefighting.(PHOTONICS)

R & D, January, 2007 by Gaughan, Richard

In the early morning hours of Oct. 26, 2006, an arsonist started a small fire in Riverside County, Calif., (Esperanza), and 18 hours later, 24,000 acres were involved. Later that same day the Governor declared a state of emergency, citing "conditions of extreme peril." The California Office of Emergency Services (OES) asked NASA's Ames Research Center, Moffett Filed, Calif., for help. The OES was aware that NASA had operated the ER-2, a U-2 reconnaissance aircraft specially modified for imaging Earth resources. Indeed, the ER-2 often flew the Daedalus Thematic Mapper Simulator, a sensor package capable of imaging in 12 spectral bands, matched to wavelength regions of the LANDSAT sensors. When the OES called on NASA-Ames, they didn't know if Ames was still operating...

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