Scientists try to spot fires before they start
Identifying when conditions are "ripe" for a wildfire may help scientists prevent them. (NOAA)
For several years now, it’s been possible to use satellite technology to pinpoint the progress of wildfires.
More recently, it’s become possible to see when conditions are right for a fire to start. Dar Roberts is a geographer at the University of California at Santa Barbara. He said the technique involves using satellite data to see moisture levels in plants.
Dar Roberts: We can say what the water status of the plants might be. We also know that the canopy themselves might have what we call a fuel condition that is readily burnable, meaning the number of live leaves is low, the amount of dead materials in the crown is high and then a final factor that we could use is knowing how much of the fuel is actually present.
Still, Roberts hesitates to say that scientists can actually predict where a wildfire will start.
Dar Roberts: When you look through all the data and say, oh well, these areas had these conditions that looked really bad and in fact that was a really bad year for fires. So you can actually predict sort of the general behavior of a fire season pretty accurately, what you can’t do is actually predict a specific start of a wildfire because what you need for a fire to start is an ignition.
Wildfires burned 9 million acres in 2006, and a comparable number – 8.7 million acres – the year before.
Our thanks today to NASA: explore, discover, understand.
Additional Teacher Resources
NASA: Natural Hazards – Fires
This NASA web page includes an interactive map that shows the location of recent wildfires. Click on a location to find detailed information on that fire, including satellite photos.
NASA: NASA Data Helps Pinpoint Wildfire Threats
A recent study indicates that NASA data from earth observation satellites is helping build the capability to determine when and where wildfires may occur by providing details on plant conditions.
NASA: MODIS Rapid Response System
The MODIS Rapid Response System was developed to provide daily satellite images of the Earth landmasses in near real time. True-color, photo-like imagery and false-color imagery are available within a few hours of being collected, making the system a valuable resource for organizations like the U.S. Forest Service and the international fire monitoring community, who use the images to track fires.
