 Completed Missions The WRAP project has completed a number of test, evaluation and demonstration capabilities missions during the five years of the project. Various imagery and technologies, developed from those missions are showcased here. 2006 Western States Mission Summary: For 2006, there were a number of UAV preparation missions, in anticipation of a 2006 Western States UAS Fire Imaging Mission Series. When delays in the FAA COA process occurred, the end of the major fire season precluded large mission profiles over the western US. Subsequently, the team flew a number of missions in preparations for a 2007 mission series. The following table summarizes the missions completed in 2006. 2006 Western States UAS Fire Mission Summary Table:
The following sections describe some of the 2006 highlighted missions Esperanza Mission – October 28-29, 2006:On 26 October 2006 at 1:12 AM, an arsonist ignited the deadly Esperanza Fire near Banning, California. Fanned by Santa Ana winds, the fire consumed over 40,200 acres, 34 homes and 20 outbuildings. Five firefighters died in the blaze. On 27 October 2006, NASA received a request from the California Office of Emergency Services (CA-OES) to support the Esperanza Fire with any available airborne remote sensing resources. The Western States UAS Fire Mission team mobilized, requesting an emergency amendment to the FAA COA to extend the mission capabilities of the Altair¨ to fly in the NAS over the Esperanza Fire. The FAA granted an emergency amendment to the COA, extending through October 30th, 2006. The AMS-WILDFIRE instrument was sent to Gray Butte for re-installation on the Altair¨, and a mission management team was mobilized to southern California. 
On 28 October 2006 at 3:47 PM the Altair® took off from Gray Butte, CA for the 65-mile flight to linger over the Esperanza Fire and collect imagery throughout the next 16+ hours. Data from the instrument were made available to various California state offices and to the fire Incident Command Team (ICT) located at Banning, California. 
Geo- and terrain-rectified imagery was made available to the Incident Command teams for use in their various mapping software. Additionally, imagery was available through the GoogleEarth CDE for visualization. The AMS-WILDFIRE scanner collected and distributed data in various channel combinations to facilitate ease of interpretation by the fire teams. During night operations, single-channel thermal data was primarily effective for ascertaining fire fronts and hot spots, while daylight images were composed of multiple-channels of thermal, IR, and visible spectral bands. The CA-OES provided GIS-compatible updates of the current fire perimeter maps and the NASA team used the information to develop real-time products that displayed the most-current hot-spot detection imagery in relation to the fire perimeter. The imagery proved beneficial in determining where specific fire areas had extended beyond the known perimeters. This was especially effective during the late night and early morning hours when the Incident Command Team had minimal intelligence on the fire activity. 
AMS-WILDFIRE single-channel thermal data draped over the Esperanza Fire Perimeter map and terrain data within the GoogleEarth CDE. The "hot spots" of active fire can be seen extending beyond the known fire perimeter. Altair® completed the mission and returned to the Gray Butte, CA airfield on October 29th at 7:14 AM, completing a 16:27 hour mission. Following the mission debrief, the AMS-WILDFIRE instrument was de-integrated from the pod for "off-season" laboratory calibration and development in preparation for the 2007 Western States Fire Mission series. Yosemite National Park and Vicinity Mission – October 25-25, 2006 Prior to the Esperanza Emergency Support Mission, there were a number of UAS missions aimed at wildfire imaging or development missions focused on instrument and platform preparation. Those missions included flights of ~23 hours in restricted airspace and a mission over Yosemite National Park in the National Airspace on October 24-th and 25th, 2006. The Yosemite Mission was the first mission in the NAS for the WRAP project. A flight in the NAS occurred on October 24th and 25th, 2006 over the Yosemite National Park region. The mission was the first such for the Altair¨ in the NAS for the WSFM series. The objectives were to image over small fires within the Park, and two prescribed fires nearby on the Inyo National Forest. Three AMS-WILDFIRE data sets were collected temporally coincident with day and night MODIS sensor satellite overpasses over the two prescribed fires. Data were integrated real-time into the GoogleEarth CDE and draped with the coincident MODIS data for visualization. The coincident sensor data was used to calibrate / validate the MODIS fire detects, in conjunction with the NASA MODIS Land Team.  Image collected from Altair® UAS with AMS-WILDFIRE sensor. Prescribed fires in Inyo National Forest, 25 October 2006. Orange icons are MODIS fire detects (from 2:00 AM AQUA overpass). AMS-WILDFIRE image displays bands 11 (3.6 – 3.79 µm), 7 (0.76 – 0.9 µm), and 5 (0.63 – 0.69 µm). Active fire is bright red, while recent burns are maroon. Background is GoogleEarth–served data.
Meeting mission objectives, Altair® landed at 2:35 PM on 25 October 2006 after 21:24 hours aloft. Southern California Firestorms – October / November 2003 These AIRDAS data collections were requested by the US Forest Service to assist in the support of the Burned Area Environmental Rehabilitation work (BAER). Due to various issues with acquisition of useful satellite data, the AIRDAS was requested for quick-response mapping of the multiple fire complexes in Southern California. This mission demonstrated the multi-facet capabilities of AIRDAS (additional spectral channel not available on USFS scanning systems) and demonstrated large-volume, real-time data telemetry of imagery. Other "firsts" for this mission included near-real-time geo-rectification (using DEM data) of large data sets (250,000 acres of coverage) for immediate use by BAER teams. That geo-rectification included mosaicing of multiple adjacent flight segments of thermal data and distribution to BAER teams for GIS integration. These missions demonstrated the capabilities of a unique multi-agency partnership, created to assist with niche resources, technologies and experienced personnel during emergency operations. By utilizing multi-sensor resources, such as MODIS, Landsat, ALS, USFS Phoenix data, and AIRDAS data, an improved fire evaluation and rehabilitation plan was implemented. This "sensor web" integration of various orbital and sub-orbital resources showcased a collaborative decision support mechanism for addressing a multi-fire disaster event. |
||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||
