NASA Tracks Wildfires From Above to Aid Firefighters Below
NASA Tracks Wildfires From Above to Aid Firefighters Below
\Every day during the late spring and early fall, two planes take off in the Western US and head toward an active wildfire. They can locate as many as 30 fires in one night. They fly 10,000 ft above the ground, but somehow the smoke finds a way to enter their cabin, and burns their eyes and throats. They fly directly above the flames and fly in a pattern similar to one of mowing grass. Most of the time, the Earth-observing satellites and planes are the first to spot a forest fire. Satellites are limited to pixels, so it limits NASA when it comes to finding the exact location of the main part of the fire. So, instruments on the Forest Service aircraft help.
These new technologies and advancements in fire detecting services becoming more advances is a great development that could save many lives. However, I hope they are putting as much money into preventing the forest fires as they are into putting them out, because if the focus was more geared to prevention, maybe it could resolve much of the issue.
I think that using satellites is a better idea than planes because it poses less of a danger. If the technology was created to get a better picture, we might not need to use planes to fly over the fires. I think the most important thing right now is to put the fires out, then think of ways of prevention. As much as fires can be prevented, they're still going to happen.
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