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[Sound of electrical sparks, sizzle of burning cigarette]

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[Forest fire crackles, thunder echoes]

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[Sound of wildfire rises] Narrator: A wildfire is born … 

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and teams of people leap into action, 

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sounding the alarm for nearby residents, providing local fire observations,

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and getting ready to battle the flames from ground and sky. 

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These front-line responders do the heavy lifting 

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when it comes to fighting and managing fires, but they’re often

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helped by the view from higher up.  [rythmic music builds]

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From late spring to early fall, two US Forest Service planes flying

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at 10,000 feet, crisscross the Western United States chasing fires. 

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Sometimes mapping dozens of fires in one night, 

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they help identify a fire’s perimeter 

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and any outlying fires or hotspots, andprovide

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information to the Fire Management Teams on the ground. 

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Meanwhile, further above, NASA and NOAA satellites 

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provide a powerful global view of active fires across the entire planet.

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Satellites can fill in the gaps

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between ground and airborne observations, identifying fires 

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soon after they start, and detecting fires 

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that nothing else can – like in remote stretches of wilderness –

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– or estimating a fire’s perimeter when planes aren’t available. 

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These fire observations from air and space [crackling of wildfire]

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can help responders decide where to send firefighters and other resources.

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File footage voiceover: Three, two, one

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Main engine start, and liftoff of the Atlas

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rocket with the Terra flagship of the Earth Observing System.

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Narrator: And since NASA designed and launched the first satellite instruments to specifically measure fires 

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20 years ago, satellite fire data has also been used in many other ways, 

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 including detecting smoke plumes, forecasting and 

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measuring air quality downwind from a fire,

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measuring burned area after fires are extinguished, and looking at trends 

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in global fire frequency and severity.

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NASA and NOAA scientists are working to leverage that satellite data

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with new airborne field campaigns featuring new technologies 

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for measuring wildfires, so that we can all make 

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better decisions about how to respond when fire strikes.

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[music fades]