Transcripts of Satellites_Aid_Active_Fire_Response_Final



[Sound of electrical sparks, sizzle of burning cigarette] 

[Forest fire crackles, thunder echoes] 

[Sound of wildfire rises] Narrator: A wildfire is born … and teams of people leap into action, sounding the alarm for nearby residents, providing local fire observations, and getting ready to battle the flames from ground and sky. These front-line responders do the heavy lifting when it comes to fighting and managing fires, but they’re often helped by the view from higher up. 

[rythmic music builds] From late spring to early fall, two US Forest Service planes flying at 10,000 feet, crisscross the Western United States chasing fires. Sometimes mapping dozens of fires in one night, they help identify a fire’s perimeter and any outlying fires or hotspots, andprovide information to the Fire Management Teams on the ground. Meanwhile, further above, NASA and NOAA satellites provide a powerful global view of active fires across the entire planet. Satellites can fill in the gaps between ground and airborne observations, identifying fires soon after they start, and detecting fires that nothing else can – like in remote stretches of wilderness – – or estimating a fire’s perimeter when planes aren’t available. These fire observations from air and space 

[crackling of wildfire] can help responders decide where to send firefighters and other resources. File footage voiceover: Three, two, one Main engine start, and liftoff of the Atlas rocket with the Terra flagship of the Earth Observing System. Narrator: And since NASA designed and launched the first satellite instruments to specifically measure fires 20 years ago, satellite fire data has also been used in many other ways,  including detecting smoke plumes, forecasting and measuring air quality downwind from a fire, measuring burned area after fires are extinguished, and looking at trends in global fire frequency and severity. NASA and NOAA scientists are working to leverage that satellite data with new airborne field campaigns featuring new technologies for measuring wildfires, so that we can all make better decisions about how to respond when fire strikes. 

[music fades]