In the wake of the Black Forest wildfires in Colorado, destroying 500 homes in the first 48 hours and killing two people, NASA is stepping up their efforts to monitor the natural occurrence by setting up numerous "fire towers."
"Fire seasons are getting longer, western regions are getting drier, and more people are living closer to fire-prone areas," aid Don Smurthwaite, spokesperson with the National Interagency Fire Center (NIFC) in Boise, Idaho, in a news release.
Hot, dry and windy weather played a role in that wildfire, according to Smurthwaite, but NASA is taking the necessary precautions to keep the destruction at bay. NASA has created "fire towers" using satellites to give wildfire monitoring agencies the most accurate, up-to-date information worldwide.
"For more than a decade, instruments on Terra and Aqua, two of NASA's flagship Earth-observing satellites, have scanned the surface of our planet for fires," NASA said in a news release. "An instrument on both satellites, the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS), has revolutionized what scientists know about fire's role in land cover change, ecosystem processes and the global carbon cycle by allowing researchers to map characteristics of the global distribution of fires in remarkable detail."
MODIS circles the globe every 99 minutes, and there are currently two active MODIS sensors provide which give daily reports of active fires. The information captured by MODIS is sent by text message, and agencies responsible for monitoring wildfires, including the U.S. Forest Service, can respond accordingly.
"We provide this information to national and regional managers so that they have a current picture of ongoing fire activity and its effects (observed fire intensity, burned area and smoke extent) which assists in making strategic fire planning and response decisions," said Brad Quayle, a remote sensing specialist with RSCA, in a news release.
NASA /NOAA Suomi National Polar-orbiting Partnership also launched another satellite called Visible Infrared Imaging Radiometer Suite (VIIRS) to provide two additional daily observations.
Fire scientists use another tool called Landfire, short for Landscape Fire and Resources Management Planning Tools project. The project uses data from Landsat satellites, a mission jointly operated by NASA and the U.S. Geological Survey.
"Landfire provides maps of the nation's land cover including vegetation type, tree canopy cover and height," NASA said. "Together with weather information, this enables crucial fire behavior predictions to be made. These data feed into decision support systems that guide managers on where and when to deploy valuable firefighting resources and where to focus fire-prevention and recovery efforts."
To read more about NASA's fire towers, click here.
