Hola amigos: A VUELO DE UN QUINDE EL BLOG., la Agencia Espacial NASA, nos dice...." que su Investigación Aeronáutica de la NASA prueba un nuevo instrumento de detección precoz Wildfire......"La investigación de la NASA en sistemas aéreos no tripulados (UAS) pronto podría proporcionar un medio para la detección temprana y la mitigación de los incendios en el Great Dismal Swamp National Wildlife Refuge, una región cerca de 50.000 acres cuadrados ubicada en la frontera de Virginia-Carolina del Norte......"
NASA researcher Mike Logan plans to use this small
unmanned aerial vehicle to check for fires at a Virginia-North Carolina wildlife
refuge as part of an agreement with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife
Service
Image Credit:
NASA Langley/David C. Bowman
NASA’s research in unmanned aerial systems (UAS) may soon provide a means for
early detection and mitigation of fires in the Great Dismal Swamp National
Wildlife Refuge, a nearly 50,000-square-acre region centered on the
Virginia-North Carolina border.
NASA’s Langley Research Center, in nearby Hampton, Virginia, has signed a
one-year agreement with the Department of the Interior’s U.S. Fish and Wildlife
Service (FWS) to test small UASs for the detection of brush and forest fires.
The research is part of the NASA Aeronautics Research Mission Directorate’s UAS
Integration in the National Airspace System (NAS) project.
“The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is evaluating the feasibility of airborne
unmanned platforms and their ability to offer a safer and more cost-effective
alternative for surveillance of potential areas of interest immediately
following thunderstorm activity,” said Great Dismal Swamp Refuge Manager Chris
Lowie. “The agency hopes to see a significant decrease in cost to survey the
Great Dismal Swamp, as well as a reduction in time to detect nascent fires,
which could potentially save millions of dollars to the taxpayer in firefighting
costs,” added Lowie.
Mike Logan, the research lead at Langley, came up with the idea after a
forest fire in 2011 that lasted almost four months and cost more than $10
million to extinguish. Smoke from that fire, which was caused by a lightning
strike, traveled as far north as Maryland only three years after another
$10-million blaze in 2008, according to FWS.
“I made a phone call to the local fire captain after days of inhaling peat
bog smoke,” said Logan. “I learned most fires are caused by lightning strikes
and the only way they can spot them is by hiring an aircraft to do an aerial
survey of the huge swamp. So I figured why not use a UAV as a fire
detector?”
After approval from the Federal Aviation Administration, the team at Langley
plans to fly a lightweight UAS equipped with cameras and transmitters over the
wildlife refuge.
“One is an out-of-the-nose camera that can see smoke plumes as they are
rising,” Logan explained. “The other is an infrared camera housed in the body of
the plane that points down. It can find hot spots by detecting heat
signatures.”
Although the aircraft can fly as fast as 40 miles an hour, when used in this
capacity it will be flown slower while it transmits video, allowing individuals
on the ground to observe what is occurring in the live video. The transmissions
can be viewed on a laptop computer in a mobile ground station.
Logan says the drone, which weighs about 15 pounds and has an almost six-foot
wingspan, has a range of about eight miles and can stay aloft as long as an
hour, before the batteries need recharging. The aircraft also can be programmed
to fly on its own, but a safety pilot will monitor operations during the
tests.
“This kind of application for unmanned aerial systems shows just one public
benefit,” said Dave Hinton, Langley associate director for UAS technologies and
applications. “They can be used to detect fires or locate people who are
lost.”
For more about the Great Dismal Swamp Wildlife Refuge, go to:
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