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NASA.

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The Agency that landed on the moon, launched the Hubble Space Telescope, 

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and took the first rover selfie? Yeah, that NASA.

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We also chase fires.

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NASA Explorers

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Introducing Season Three

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Fires

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This team is in the middle of a recovery operation.

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The California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection

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is using NASA satellite data to map the path of destruction 

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after the 2018 Camp Fire.

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NASA has the tallest fire towers. 

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With our satellites looking down from space,

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catching images every day and every night,

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were often the first to detect and then share information about fires, 

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especially fires that are burning in remote locations.

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That's where we can come in and provide a much better picture.

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and so I have NASA MODIS and VIIRS stuff 

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which we always use on Google Earth

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You can kinda see the streets here. 

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This is a neighborhood - totally burned down. 

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A NASA rapid response grant allowed the team to study the impact of the Camp Fire

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 just four months after it was contained.

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 NASA provides crucial tools for both first responders and fire recovery managers. 

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But there are even bigger implications for understanding the future of fire. 

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The information we collect from satellites helps us understand not just when are where fires are burning, 

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but what kind of changes they’re making to the ecosystems on the ground and our atmosphere up above. 

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I’m Doug Morton and I’m a Earth System Scientist, 

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here at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center.

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Doug is one NASA’s go-to scientists when it comes to making sense of how fires 

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effect people and ecosystems. 

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You need three things to make a fire.

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You something to burn, you need climate conditions that allow that fire to start and grow large,

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and you need a source of ignition. 

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Today, the source of ignition is almost always humans. 

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We can use information about rainfall and climate to anticipate landscapes

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that might be come flammable in the future.

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That kind of predictive power, how we harness our understanding of the Earth’s system, has really helped us move forward

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 in terms of anticipating and minimizing the risk to landscapes that might be flammable 

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next week, or even next season.

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But the real work of science, may be something that 

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many people don’t have a lot of visibility into. 

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When we talk about taking a team of scientists and putting them into the field,

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that can mean weeks, months, or even years of collecting data. 

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The first time I spent in the Amazon was in the early 2000’s, 

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just at the peak of deforestation rates in Brazil. 

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And I don’t think anyone could make it to the end of the frontier landscape,

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 standing at the edge of a road and looking in all directions and seeing towering columns of black smoke 

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and not feel like there was an opportunity to be careful with our planet. 

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Fires have been burning across the southern Amazon, 

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an area I’ve been working in for the last twenty years. 

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And so, people have looked to me to explain is this normal? 

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One of the things I can do as a NASA scientist is, I can go back in time.

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Our data record allows us to literally compare actives that are happening everyday 

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with these same days and same kinds of conditions, previous years.

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From space, we’re mapping fires across the entire planet 

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and that often takes us to remote locations. 

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And the best way to partner and understand those remote locations is 

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with people who live and work in those communities.

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So, that’s what we did. 

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This year NASA is sending a blitz of missions into the field and you’re coming with us.

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Climate change is shepherding in a new era of fires that burn hotter and longer.

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And our pilots. Our partners. Our scientist and engineers?

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They’ve come prepared to meet the challenge. 

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NASA Explorers

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On the next episode of NASA Explorers

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Some of my days have been 14, 16 and 18 hours. 

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We don't hesitate to meet challenging conditions.

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You know, you can tolerate a lot for a day or two.

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Episode Two: Follow that Plume!

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