Governor Schwarzenegger and NASA Highlight Infrared Scanning Technology Helping to Fight California’s Wildfires

Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger today joined NASA and federal and state fire officials at the NASA Ames Research Center in Moffett Field to tour the facility and discuss the important role of NASA's remotely piloted aircraft, named Ikhana, to California's firefight. The unmanned aircraft carrying a NASA infrared scanning sensor flew over much of California this past week, gathering information that was delivered to fire commanders in the field-helping them understand the terrain and behavior of the state's most dangerous fires.

"California's unprecedented number of fires this early in the season make it all the more important that we use every tool at our disposal to protect property and save lives," Governor Schwarzenegger said. "NASA's Ikhana is one more incredible tool that we are able to use this year to bring real-time pictures and data to fire commanders, even when our other aircraft are unable to fly. The federal government has been an active partner in helping California fight fires, and NASA's assistance is one more example of that cooperation."

The Ikhana's most recent mission was on Tuesday, July 8. It flew for more than nine hours and covered approximately 10 individual and complex fires along a route over the Sierra Nevadas, west to the Cub Complex fires and south to the Gap Fire in Santa Barbara County.

The images are collected onboard the Ikhana and transmitted through a communications satellite to NASA's Ames Research Center in Moffett Field, CA, where they are superimposed over Google Earth and Microsoft Virtual Earth maps to better visualize the location and scope of the fires. The imagery is then transmitted to the Multi-Agency Coordination Center in Redding and the State Operations Center in Sacramento, which distributes it to incident commanders in the field, so they can deploy resources where it will have the greatest benefit.

NASA satellites are also capturing imagery of the wildfires to fill in gaps in airborne imagery. For these images and additional information, visit: www.nasa.gov/topics/earth/features/fire_and_smoke.html.