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[slate] NASA satellites provide views

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of actively burning fires. The smoke plumes that are leaving those fires

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changing air quality across this country and around the world.

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And that information provides some of the first indications of new wildfires

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that then gets sent down to managers on the ground who have to make day to day decisions

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on how to fight those wildfires. [slate]

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Some place is always burning. And from NASA's view from space

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we can detect those wildfires and start to put together the picture of how fires

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contribute to changes in the entire Earth system. Fires

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as far away as Africa or Australia add greenhouse gasses to the atmosphere

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changing our planet. Smoke from those fires can drift and change

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air quality across cities. And at NASA our job is to take

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our 20 satellite instruments that are detecting active fires

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observing the smoke and ash that leaves those fires and

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observing the changes that link those processes together in the air system.

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[slate] El Nino has

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been changing weather patterns, redistributing rainfall around the

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world since last October. Changing fires in Indonesia

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and then later impacting fires where the wildfire season is just getting

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started like in the southern Amazon. One of the most amazing things about

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NASA's observations of rainfall, of satellite ground water detection

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and actively burning fires is we can understand the way in which

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climate changes linked to El Nino are changing fires now

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and continue to change fires over the next year. Places like the Amazon

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had less rainfall as we result of El Nino and that region is now predisposed

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to wildfires. Wildfires that could lead to smoke and changes in

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air quality across southern Brazil including during the Rio Olympics.

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[slate] NASA satellite instruments are really critical

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to help guide the operational firefighting that's done by the forest service

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and other agencies at the Bureau of Land Management. NASA data

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captures the daily progression of those fires and that information gets fed

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directly to the ground. The fires we're seeing now around the L.A. basin

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are changing air quality for an enormous number of people that live in

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Southern California. Those fires are burning through regions that are drier this year

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than they've been in the past because of the multi-year drought that's left most of California

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ready to burn. [slate]

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NASA is actively studying fires to understand more about the way in which fires

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release smoke, changes to air quality, greenhouse gasses

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that change our whole planet. And putting those pieces together requires we

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make measurements on the ground. Using NASA aircraft we can fly through

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smoke plumes and make detailed maps of how fires are changing these ecosystems

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and we can link that information with what we can see from space. That whole puzzle

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is what keeps me and scientists like me at NASA engaged in understanding

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our changing planet. [slate]

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To learn more go to nasa.gov/fires.

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Or check out hashtag #EarthRightNow.