The FireSense project aims to improve U.S. wildland fire management by working with operational agencies to refine and deliver NASA’s unique Earth science and technological capabilities. FireSense focuses on four types of assessments to support decisions before, during, and after wildland fires: pre-fire fuel conditions, active fire dynamics, post-fire impacts and threats, and air quality forecasting. Each type of assessment is co-developed with wildland fire management stakeholders.
Through co-development of technology and data-informed tools, FireSense is intended to enable a transition from reactive to proactive fire response by facilitating increased preparedness for and co-existence with fire. To accomplish this, the FireSense team collaborates with resource managers, policymakers, and stakeholders at all levels. Since the fall of 2023, FireSense has run an annual airborne and field component where the project team tests and develops improved capabilities and technologies for transfer to stakeholders.
FireSense leverages multiple airborne instruments, including the MODIS/ASTER Airborne Simulator (MASTER), the Uninhabited Aerial Vehicle Synthetic Aperture Radar (UAVSAR), the Airborne Visible/Infrared Imaging Spectrometer 3 (AVIRIS-3), the Scanning L-band Active Passive (SLAP), and the San Jose State University Wildfire Imaging System (SWIS).
