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Ambience: UAV control room and UAV takeoff

Observing a forest fire from high above the earth, new aerospace technology can provide vital information for fire fighters. I’m Jim Metzner and this is the Pulse of the Planet. Dryden Flight Research Center’s Robert Navarro was project manager on a series of missions testing a new kind of sensor. A fire-detecting scanner was flown on a UAV, or Unmanned Aerial Vehicle. But while UAVs have many advantages over traditional manned aircraft, using this type of vehicle has also introduced some new challenges.

“The purpose of this project was to integrate the scanner sensor into a UAV and fly it over the national forest area, looking and seeking wildfires that the national fire service was unaware of. Basically, now we have a UAV, an unmanned airplane with no pilot inside, which is new to the national airspace. So the FAA, which is the Federal Aviation Agency have to basically give us a special certificate of authority and a special area where we can fly into, so that way the control centers know exactly where we're going to be flying and at what time of the day, so they can keep other traffic out of the area.”

Once they had clearance, the researchers set out to test the new airborne fire sensor.

“The area that we were approved to fly over was Yosemite National Park. One of the things that we did uncover, was there were basically two fires in the area. One, which the national forest service were aware of, and we confirmed it. And the second one was a totally new fire that they were not aware of that that fire was going on. And, so that was a really good data that we were able to provide the fire service, with actual pictures and maps and the coordinates.”

Pulse of the Planet is made possible by the National Science Foundation, with additional support from NASA. I’m Jim Metzner.