2008 Annual Report - NASA Airborne Science Program

Figure 13
AMS-Wildfire sensor data, collected from the NASA Ikhana
UAS over the Basin Fire near Big Sur California on July 8,
2008. This 3D rendering shows the AMS sensor-derived hot
spot fire fronts generated from an autonomous, real-time
processing algorithm running on processors on the aircraft.
The fire front can be seen distinctly burning in the imagery
as yellow pixels. This information was delivered in near-realtime
to the on-site Incident Command Team.
Center (MACC) in Redding, California and to
the Sacramento Area Coordination Center
(SACC).
The Ikhana flew four missions over the
Northern California fire complexes on July 8
and 19, and September 17 and 19. The July
8 mission flew 9.5 hours, covering the Piute,
Clover, Silver, North Mountain, American
River, Cub Complex, Canyon Complex, Basin,
and Gap fires. The July 19 mission lasted 5.0
hours, covering the American River, Camp,
Cub Complex, Canyon, and Piute fire. The
September 17 mission (a sensor checkout
flight) extended 3.0 hours, supporting the
collection of post-fire burn assessment data
on the Piute fire. Finally, the September 19
mission flew 3.5 hours, covering the Cascadel
and Hidden fires in the central Sierra Nevada.
The wildfire imaging missions again
demonstrated the value of real-time, critical
sensor–derived information to support
federal and state disaster management
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