| |  September 7, 2007 WILDFIRE IMAGING MISSIONS CONTINUE ON NASA'S IKHANA UAV
The third in a series of wildfire imaging demonstration flights being conducted by NASA and the U.S. Forest Service is tentatively scheduled for Sept. 7-8 from NASA's Dryden Flight Research Center. The flight, planned for about 20 hours, will take the Ikhana unmanned aircraft and its thermal-infrared imaging payload over wildfires burning in central Washington and Oregon, as well as in central and southern California.
The flights are part of the Western States Fire Mission, which is demonstrating improved wildfire imaging and mapping capabilities of the sophisticated imaging sensor and real-time data communications equipment developed at NASA's Ames Research Center.
The sensor is capable of peering through thick smoke and haze to record hot spots and the progression of wildfires over a lengthy period. The data is overlaid on Google Earth maps and downlinked in near-real time to the Interagency Fire Center in Boise, Idaho, and made available to fire incident commanders to assist them in allocating their fire-fighting resources.
NASA's Ikhana is a Predator B unmanned aircraft system built by General Atomics Aeronautical Systems and adapted for environmental science and technology research missions. Each flight is being coordinated with the FAA to allow the remotely piloted aircraft to fly within the national airspace while maintaining separation from other aircraft.
The first flight in the series captured images of California wildfires, including the huge Zaca Fire in Santa Barbara and Ventura Counties, while a second 16-hour flight Aug. 30-31 imaged five wildfires burning in Idaho, Montana and Wyoming.
For more information, visit:
http://www.nasa.gov/centers/dryden/news/NewsReleases/2007/07-46.html http://www.nasa.gov/centers/ames/news/releases/2007/07_62AR.html ## Contact:
Beth Hagenauer
NASA Dryden Flight Research Center
Phone: 661/276-7960
beth.hagenauer@nasa.gov
This text is derived from:
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