Into Smoky Air

Longleaf pine trees stretch into the smokey air immediately after a prescribed burn during the 2025 NASA FireSense research campaign, at Fort Stewart-Hunter Army Airfield in Georgia. These prescribed burns are ecologically necessary for the plants and animals in the longleaf pine ecosystem, and reduce fuels that could be accidentally ignited due to lighting strikes or military training operations. FireSense, the Department of Defense, and their partners use prescribed burns such as this one to develop and test tools and technology to make wildland fire management safer and more effective.