Western States Fire Mission

NASA and the U.S. Forest Service successfully 

demonstrated technologies that improved realtime wildfire imaging and mapping capabilities 

during the Western States Fire Mission flight 

series by unmanned research aircraft from 2006 

through 2009. 

The first flights of this NASA campaign were 

flown with General Atomics Aeronautical Systems' Altair unmanned aircraft system in 2006. 

In late October, the California Governor's 

Office of Emergency Services, the Esperanza Fire Incident Command Center and the 

National Interagency Fire Center requested 

NASA's imaging and fire-mapping assistance 

when Santa Ana winds in Southern California 

were fanning a number of wildfires. For a 16-

hour period, Altair flew over the arson-caused 

fire that claimed the lives of five firefighters. 

The wildfire sensor collected and transmitted 

more than 100 images and 20 data files containing the location of the fire perimeter. These 

data were used to map fire behavior and direct 

resources to critical areas. 

The Autonomous Modular Sensor, developed 

by scientists at NASA's Ames Research Center 

at Moffett Field, Calif., was an important tool 

for this activity with its capability to peer 

through thick smoke and haze to record hot 

spots and the progression of the fires over a 

lengthy period. The flights, averaging about 

nine hours each, were a real-world extension of 

earlier Western States Fire Mission demonstration flights. 

NASA's Ikhana, a remotely piloted Predator B 

unmanned aircraft system adapted for civilian 

science missions, flew the first 2007 flights in 

late summer from NASA's Dryden Flight Research Center at Edwards Air Force Base, Calif. 

The flights demonstrated various aircraft, sensor and data-dissemination technologies related 

to improving real-time wildfire observations. 

Each flight built upon results of the previous 

ones to expand the aircraft and sensor system's 

capabilities in endurance and range, number of 

observations made, and flexibility in mission 

and sensing reconfiguration.

The Autonomous Modular Sensor, carried in 

a specialized pod under Ikhana's wing, operates like a digital camera with specialized 

filters to detect light energy at visible, infrared and thermal wavelengths. The data were 

downlinked in near real-time to NASA Ames, 

overlaid on Google Earth maps, relayed 

over the Internet to the National Interagency 

Fire Center in Boise, Idaho, and then to fire 

With a thermal-infared sensor pod under its left wing, NASA's Ikhana unmanned aircraft cruises over 

California during a Western States Fire Mission flight in 2007. (NASA / Jim Ross)
FS-2012-03-070 DFRC

National Aeronautics and Space Administration

Dryden Flight Research Center

P.O. Box 273

Edwards, California 93523

NASA Facts

incident commanders in the field to aid in allocation of 

firefighting resources.

The data were geo- and terrain-rectified for ease of use 

in geographic information systems or data visualization 

packages and were essential for operations in areas where 

blinding smoke obscured normal fire observations. The 

images were used to position fire-fighting resources, assess 

effectiveness of containment operations, and remove critical personnel and equipment from hazardous fire situations.

During the 2007 mission, ground-based pilots flew the aircraft between 23,000 feet and 25,000 feet altitude. Ikhana 

was airborne for a total of 56 hours over eight Western 

states and covered more than 8,900 nautical miles. Twenty 

wildfires in six states were imaged. 

Several of these fires were revisited on long-duration flights 

to provide time-induced fire progression data. Post-fire 

imagery aided teams working a Burned Area Emergency 

Response that included area stabilization and ecosystem 

rehabilitation.

The Western States Fire Mission also gathered data with 

satellite sensor systems orbiting overhead, allowing for 

comparison and calibration of those resources with the 

more sensitive instrument on the Ikhana. The aircraft flew 

precisely timed cross-calibration underpasses of NASA's 

Terra and Aqua satellites. Ikhana's data, verified through 

comparison with sensor collections aboard the satellites, 

will prove valuable in applications for new space-based 

methodologies for fire observations and will enhance current space-based capabilities and measurements. 

Ikhana continued imaging wildfires within the state of California during the 2008 and 2009 fire seasons at the request 

of California's Department of Forestry and Fire Protection, 

the California Governor's Office of Emergency Services 

and the National Interagency Fire Center. 

NASA Dryden worked closely with the Federal Aviation 

Administration to obtain its approval for and coordination 

of the Altair and Ikhana unmanned aircraft system flights 

within the National Airspace System.

More recently, the Autonomous Modular Sensor was 

installed on a modified NASA King Air B200 to support 

the U.S. Forest Service and the California Department of 

Forestry and Fire Protection. This enabled greater ease of 

operation in the National Airspace System than can be had 

with the remotely operated aircraft.

This 3-D image shows the flight track of NASA's Ikhana remotely piloted aircraft over Southern California's Lake Isabella 

on Nov. 19, 2009. The green swath below the Ikhana graphic 

depicts the scanning profile of NASA's Autonomous Modular 

Sensor, which operates like a digital camera with specialized 

filters to detect light energy at visible, infrared and thermal 

wavelengths. (NASA Image)

NASA's Autonomous Modular Sensor, carried in a pod under 

the wing of the NASA's remotely piloted Predator B Ikhana, 

collected this post-fire Burned Area Emergency Response, or 

BAER, image on Nov. 19, 2009. The various purple hues show 

the differences in burn severity within the area. (NASA Image)