Expanded coverage of topics from “The Editor’s Corner” in The Earth Observer
Wind is a major factor in fire. It controls how fires evolve and pose threats to the safety of communities. While weather balloons are routinely used in daily operations outside of wildland fire management and have traditionally produced vertical soundings to define changes in atmospheric dynamics, the use of balloons is restricted during aircraft operations to combat active wildfires. New technologies are needed to fill this critical measurement gap. The Uninhabited Aerial System (UAS) fits the bill, providing data that enables localized forecasting to help predict fire behavior.
The NASA Earth Science Division FireSense project, together with agency, academic, and private partners, completed an airborne campaign in a wildfire smoke-impacted airshed in Missoula, MT on August 27–29, 2024. During the three-day campaign, a NASA UAS team conducted eight data-collection flights – see Figure. They partnered these launches with weather balloon launches.
Using this real-time data, MITRE Corporation tested high-resolution “Score-based Data Assimilation” meteorological models and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) High-Resolution Rapid Refresh (HRRR) operational atmospheric model against wind speed and temperature from local MesoNet weather stations. Environmental Systems Research Institute (ESRI) created comprehensive visualizations of flight paths, temperature, and wind.
The data collected during the Montana campaign were used to evaluate the impact of real-time data on model fire weather forecasts commonly used for operational decision making. The UAS sounding data were validated against weather ballon data. In addition, the campaign evaluated data validity from in-situ UAS soundings in a smoke impacted environment and assessed payload portability and user experience with the systems. The campaign served as a trial for interagency coordination between NOAA incident meteorologists and U.S. Forest Service (USFS) trained UAS pilots conducting data collection flights.
Figure. A composite image showing the NASA Alta X quadcopter taking off during one of eight flights conducted during the 2024 FireSense Uninhabited Aerial System technology demonstration in Missoula, MT.
Image Credit: Milan Loiacono/NASA
