Satellites Track Fire
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Last summer, wildfires raged across the West, burning millions of acres of forest in one of the worst years on record. This year could be another bad one, because of dry weather in much of the Rocky Mountains and the Pacific Northwest. But fire fighters will have a new technological tool at their disposal, as correspondent Curt Nickisch reports from the Earth Resources Observation Systems Data Center.

The EROS Data Center sits on a prairie knoll northeast of Sioux Falls, South Dakota - it's one of the most important sites in the world for downloading snapshots from weather and imaging satellites orbiting in space.

Using those images to see forest fires from a bird's eye view has been difficult in the past. Many weather satellites are trained to look at clouds. That makes it hard to look through smoke to see fires on the ground. But Dennis Hood, a senior scientist at the center, says the newest imaging satellite, Landsat Seven, can see different spectral bands, which allow it to photograph the fire.

HOOD: Smoke will obscure that visually, but there are some other sensors which sense heat, and they're used to define the fire perimeter.

Finding the edge of the fire after it has burned overnight is important, because fire officials need to know where to send crews in the morning, and if there are any trouble spots.

HOOD: Each fire team is briefed every morning at 6 am, with information derived during the nighttime hours. So they have a current picture of where the fire is and how intensely it's burning.

Hood says forestry officials will also use satellite imaging to view the aftermath of the fires. That will help them manage the forest's recovery.

Thanks today to Curt Nickish of Sioux Falls, South Dakota. the Weather Notebook is a production of the Mount Washington observatory. For more information about the EROS Data center and weather, check our website at weathernotebook.org