![]() “I was able to enhance situational awareness essentially 150 miles from where that happened, and before the first resources got on scene,” he said. ![]() ![]() Just by looking at the screen, he could make informed decisions about road closures, utility shutoffs and other critical response measures. Nick Schuler, Cal Fire’s deputy director of communications and emergency incident awareness, recalled a recent incident where he used ALERTCalifornia cameras to monitor a fire in Topanga from a command center in San Diego. The Coastal fire in Orange County claimed at least 20 homes. The Mill fire in Siskiyou County destroyed the neighborhood of Lincoln Heights in Weed, while the McKinney and Oak fires in Mariposa County each destroyed nearly 200 structures. Last year, wildfires in California killed nine people. Eighteen of the state’s 20 largest wildfires have burned since 2000, and the state saw its first million-acre fire in 2020. The innovations are welcome as climate change continues to fuel larger, faster and more frequent blazes in California and other parts of the world. “This would help us with what we call the ‘second shift,’” Tran said, meaning that when crews depart for the evening, “our unmanned and remotely operated aircraft with new air traffic management systems would allow us to suppress the fire at night, which is when the wildfire is relatively calm.” The agency is also researching unmanned aircraft and drones that could help with emergency response during wildfires, said Huy Tran, aeronautics director with NASA’s Ames Research Center in Silicon Valley. Artificial intelligence tools “will become increasingly important to help manage and extract meaning from their ever-increasing volumes of data.” Germain, director of NASA’s Earth Science Division. “Within the next two years, between SWOT and NISAR, we will have doubled the entirety of the NASA Earth Science data holdings,” said Karen St. The agency’s Surface Water Ocean Topography mission, operated out of the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in La Cañada Flintridge, is measuring nearly all of the planet’s water, while its NISAR satellite is circling the globe to gather advanced radar imaging and other data. NASA is also funding research into AI machine learning and other tools for climate and science missions, officials said during a recent news briefing. While many fire experts say retardant is an invaluable resource for battling blazes, a growing number of environmentalists have raised concerns about the bright pink material. The system has also proven helpful for law enforcement, as investigators can use the footage to look back to the first moments of a fire’s ignition while they work to determine its cause.Ĭalifornia As California fire season begins, debate over wildfire retardant heats up “So as the season progresses and those light, flashy fuels change, the system sees their change, and we integrate that into our fire modeling program,” SeLegue said. Geological Survey to map nearly the entire state using Light Detection and Ranging (LIDAR) technology, which provides Cal Fire with information about vegetation and fuel moisture levels, drought, tree mortality and other landscape factors that can affect fire behavior. “Now, instead of looking at that screen constantly, the only time your eye has to look up there is when catches something.” “Prior to this, we would be monitoring several areas of heightened fire danger or activity,” SeLegue said amid the soft blue glow of monitor screens in the control room at the Southern Region Interagency Operations Center in Riverside County. Before the implementation of AI, the footage was monitored manually by people at the command centers, who are naturally vulnerable to fatigue and human error. The network includes fixed cameras as well as pan-tilt zoom cameras with near-infrared night vision capabilities, which together collect massive petabytes of data. The Quick Reaction Force from the Los Angeles, Ventura and Orange county fire departments will be available 24 hours a day all year long. California Night-flying helicopters prepare to battle wildfire as heat wave bakes California
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