USDA forest service–NASA: unmanned aerial systems demonstrations – pushing the leading edge in fire mapping

Abstract

A collaborative partnership between NASA and the US Forest Service has been used to facilitate and demonstrate evolved and evolving technologies for increasing the information content and timeliness of thermal image data collected for wildfires. The outcomes of this collaborative effort are creation of improved tools for Wildfire Decision Support Systems within the US Forest Service and the other fire mitigation and management agencies. The focus of this article will be onrecent work using unmanned airborne systems as a sensor platform.