ED07-0243-03
NASA Ames Research Center (ARC) engineer Ted Hildum checked out the thermal-infrared scanner computer before it was loaded on NASA’s Ikhana unmanned aircraft. Ikhana carried the Autonomous Modular Scanner payload developed by ARC. The equipment incorporated a sophisticated imaging sensor and real-time data communications equipment. The sensor was capable of peering through thick smoke and haze to record hot spots and the progression of wildfires over a lengthy period. The data was then downlinked to ARC where it was overlaid on Google Earth maps, then transmitted in near-real time to the Interagency Fire Center in Boise, ID, and made available to fire incident commanders to assist them in allocating their fire-fighting resources.October 23, 2007
NASA Photo / Tom Tschida