Risk Wise

[

] 161

flight profiles for the

Ikhana

UAV in order to maximize mission acqui-

sitions over the most intense fire areas. The team prioritized mission

flight parameters based on a myriad of information, including

weather patterns, intense fire areas, fires affecting urban fringe areas,

busy air traffic areas/times, and other variables. Real-time collabo-

ration with ICCs and EOCs via the CDE instant messaging provision

also allowed their input to fire and mission priorities.

For each fire area, a mosaic of geo- and terrain-corrected image

scenes were collected and transmitted to a NASA server. The

GoogleEarth CDE allowed real-time access to that data at the NASA

server. When a fire area image was collected, a camera icon for that

location immediately appeared on the GoogleEarth CDE screen.

The icon could then be selected to display a snapshot thumbnail

image and pertinent collection information (location, time, file

name, etc). The full scene images can be ‘opened’ from the thumb-

nail and are immediately geo-positioned on the GoogleEarth terrain

background. The GoogleEarth tool allows 3D viewing of the terrain

and imagery, ‘fly-throughs’ and various perspective views. This

allows the ICC and EOC members to derive fire condition and

behavior in relation to the surrounding environment. Additionally,

the hotspot detection polygons were also autonomously processed

on the

Ikhana

and sent to the CDE through the same satellite

communications protocol.

The hotspot detection data layer provides hotspot polygons of the

fire front and also small hotspot locations that may otherwise go

undetected. Combined, these two data sets, derived from the AMS-

Wildfire sensor on the

Ikhana

UAV platform, provided critical,

real-time fire location information to the ICCs and

EOCs. Over the five days of mission operations, all the

sensor data was available through the CDE, allowing for

the creation of fire progression maps.

On 28 October, the final southern California wild-

fire UAV imaging mission was flown. At that time, the

fires were coming under control and some were in

‘mop-up’ condition. On that date, the NASA team

switched the AMS-Wildfire sensor acquisition mode in

mid-flight to collect post-fire burn area assessment

spectral band imagery. This data was provided in real-

time to the southern California ICCs and EOCs, to

begin initial post-fire vegetation rehabilitation assess-

ment activities. During the four missions, the

Ikhana

and AMS-Wildfire sensor logged over 32 hours of oper-

ation.

Overall impact of the UAV-sensor-acquired data

The ICCs and EOCs readily adapted the data provided

through the CDE and easily assimilated the information,

processing and visualization tools into their operational

environment during the southern California wildfires.

During the five days and four missions of the effort, over

150 daily users of the CDE were registered. Of the 400

image files collected (as well as the fire hotspot detection

vector file data) during the missions (one hundred

images per mission day), the community downloaded

40,000 file sets.

The capabilities demonstrated during the southern

California wildfires are currently being adopted by the

various wildfire management agencies at both the state

and federal level. NASA will continue to engage the

disaster community in developing, demonstrating,

evaluating and implementing new strategies and capa-

bilities to support disaster management and facilitate

a reduction in disaster losses. The rapid acquisition of

essential disaster data, delivered in near- real time, will

ultimately improve the capabilities of agencies to

combat and recover from disaster events. In many

instances, the disaster manager is ‘lost in the fog of war’

when faced with the blinding realization of a large

event occurring, where he/she has no ‘intelligence’

about the condition of the disaster event. The tools,

science and capabilities demonstrated under emer-

gency conditions during the southern California

wildfires will prove beneficial to disaster management

agencies and personnel worldwide and will lead to an

effective reduction in disaster losses. NASA looks

forward to its role in bringing space-age capabilities to

fruition to support the disaster-prone communities of

the United States and the world.

This activity helps support the Subcommittee on

Disaster Reduction Grand Challenges for Wildfire –

specifically, Grand Challenge number one in the

Implementation Plans that states: “Provide hazard and

disaster information where and when it is needed”.

NASA continues to support the Grand Challenge goals.

More information on the Grand Challenges can be found

at the subcommittee’s website.

San Diego County Emergency Operations Center (EOC) during the southern California

wildfires, 25 October 2007. Note the large display on the left highlighting the

Collaborative Decision Environment (CDE) with the pertinent fire imagery datasets

visible on the GoogleEarth freeware display. The ICCs and EOCs used the NASA-

derived technologies to improve their disaster management capabilities

Image: J. Mendelsohn - Google