NASA supports wildland fire technology demonstration

The initiative is part of the US National Aeronautics and Space Administration’s (NASA) multi-year FireSense project, aimed at developing technologies that could support the US Forest Service (USFS), as well as local, state, and other federal wildland fire agencies.

Advancements in NASA’s airborne technology have made it possible to collect localized wind data and assess its effect on smoke and fire behavior. This information can enhance wildland fire decision-making and help operational agencies allocate firefighters and resources more effectively.

A small team from NASA’s Armstrong Flight Research Center in Edwards, California, is demonstrating some of these technologies. For the Geneva State Forest burn, two instruments from NASA’s Langley Research Center in Hampton, Virginia – a sensor gathering 3D wind data and a radiosonde that measures temperature, barometric pressure, and humidity – were installed on NASA Armstrong’s Alta X drone.

“The objectives for the Alta X portion of the multi-agency prescribed burn include a technical demonstration for wildland fire practitioners, and data collection at various altitudes for the Alabama Forestry Commission operations,” said Jennifer Fowler, FireSense Project Manager. “Information gathered at the different altitudes is essential to monitor the variables for a prescribed burn.”

Those variables include the mixing height – the depth to which smoke will disperse – a metric that Fowler said is difficult to predict. Humidity, which must be above 30% for a prescribed burn, is another key factor. The technology to collect these measurements locally is not typically available in wildland fire operations, making Alta X and its instruments critical to the demonstration.

In addition to the Alta X flights, which began on 25 March, NASA Armstrong’s B200 King Air is flying above active fires at an altitude of about 6,500ft. Sensors on board other aircraft will operate at lower altitudes during the fire and higher altitudes before and after to collect the necessary data. This multi-agency mission aims to validate and refine the prescribed burn forecast model.

Small uncrewed aircraft system pilots from NASA Armstrong prepared for deployment to Alabama, where they will manage flight operations and monitor airborne activities, while ensuring that aircraft batteries remain charged. Alta X launches and lands manually, but its mission profile is flown autonomously to maintain consistent data collection conditions.

“The flight profile is vertical – straight up and straight back down from the surface to about 3,000ft altitude,” said Derek Abramson, Chief Engineer for the subscale flight research laboratory. “We will characterize the mixing height and changes in moisture, mapping out how they both change throughout the day in connection with the burn.”

NASA has also been developing a Portable Airspace Management System for wildfire response.