Learn about an airborne tool used to reduce wildfire risk. Aviris enhanced photographs of Santa Monica Mountains. Click to enlarge. Sensors aboard airplanes can be used to monitor habitats on the ground by measuring reflected sunlight. The colors of reflected light can help determine where vegetation is growing.
Plants reflect green light because they contain the molecule chlorophyll.
In a similar way, plant moisture reflects distinct colors of light. And monitoring moisture content is especially important in the battle to prevent wildfires. And they've begun to make decisions about where they might do brush clearing in order to mitigate the risk. And that's quite a wonderful example of how we're using the spectroscopy in a rather straightforward method to answer somebody's burning question so to speak, which is where is the wildfire risk the greatest. That's our show for today.