Steven S. Wegener

The Ikhana unmanned airborne system (UAS) western states fire imaging missions: from concept to reality (2006–2010)

Between 2006 and 2010, National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) and the US Forest Service flew 14 unmanned airborne system (UAS) sensor missions, over 57 fires in the western US. The missions demonstrated the capabilities of a UAS platform (NASA Ikhana UAS), a multispectral sensor (autonomous modular sensor (AMS)), onboard processing and data visualization (Wildfire Collaborative Decision Environment (W-CDE)), to provide fire intelligence to management teams. Autonomous, on-board processing of the AMS sensor data allowed real-time fire product delivery to incident management teams on the wildfire events. The fire products included geo-rectified, colour-composite quick-look imagery, fire detection shape files, post-fire real-time normalized burn ratio imagery and burn area emergency response (BAER) imagery. The W-CDE was developed to allow the ingestion and visualization of AMS data and other pertinent fire-related information layers. This article highlights the technologies developed and employed, the UAS wildfire imaging missions performed and the outcomes and findings of the multi-year efforts.

UAV Autonomous Operations for Airborne Science Missions

Autonomous UAV science missions hold great promise for improving the productivity of airborne science research and applications. Potential UAV science missions have been reviewed and common autonomy needs have been identified. Preliminary efforts to craft an Intelligent Mission Management architecture for observational autonomy are evolving. Three science missions, along with the architecture, the technology needs and operational requirements for autonomy are highlighted.

Platform options of free-flying satellites, UAVs or the International Space Station for remote sensing assessment of the littoral zone

Over the years, making or creating a choice for a specific platform from which to conduct remote sensing observations of specific targets brings in many factors related to the target characteristics and how the data are going to be used. Attempts to measure Earths diverse objects have generated a wide range of platform alternatives, from geostationary satellites to low-flying aircraft. Now several additional options possessing unique attributes are available: the International Space Station (ISS) and Un-inhabited Aerial Vehicles (UAVs). This paper explores some of the tradeoffs among these alternatives for the special problem of remotely sensing the littoral zone, but especially the shallow ecosystems. Though the surface area of the littoral zone is relatively large, it is geographically disbursed and somewhat linear. Also, the spatial, spectral and temporal variability of ecosystems in this zone is very high, and signals are masked by the overlying water column. Ideally, a frequent revisit time would be desirable to monitor their health and changing condition. These characteristics place important constraints on platform choice as one tries to design a system to monitor these critical ecosystems and provide useful information for managing them. This paper discusses these tradeoff issues as offered mainly by three platform choices: free-flying satellites, ISS, UAVs and other aircraft.

Lessons Learned from NASA UAV Science Demonstration Program Missions

During the summer of 2002, two airborne missions were flown as part of a NASA Earth Science Enterprise program to demonstrate the use of uninhabited aerial vehicles (UAVs) to perform earth science. One mission, the Altus Cumulus Electrification Study (ACES), successfully measured lightning storms in the vicinity of Key West, Florida, during storm season using a high-altitude Altus(TM) UAV. In the other, a solar-powered UAV, the Pathfinder Plus, flew a high-resolution imaging mission over coffee fields in Kauai, Hawaii, to help guide the harvest.

Demonstrating of Real-Time Fire Monitoring Using UAVs

1 Copyright 2002 by The American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics, Inc. No copyright is asserted in the U.S. under Title 17, U.S. Code. The U.S. Government has a royalty-free license to exercise all rights under the copyright claimed herein for Governmental Purposes. All other rights are reserved by the copyright owner. ABSTRACT NASA-Ames Research Center, in collaboration with General Atomics Aeronautical Systems, Inc. has been developing real-time data acquisition and information delivery systems employing uninhabited aerial vehicle (UAV) technology for disaster mitigation and assessment demonstrations. Working in conjunction with the U.S. Forest Service, a disaster community agency responsible for wildfire management and mitigation, we developed a large-scale wildfire demonstration called the First Response Experiment (FiRE), which took place in late summer 2001. During that experiment, which had been in the planning for some time [1], the participants demonstrated the melding of innovative technologies such as UAV platforms, real-time data processing, and data telemetry for quick analysis of a disaster event. The General Atomics ALTUS UAV, the Airborne Infrared Disaster Assessment System (AIRDAS) and Over-The-Horizon (OTH) satellite data telemetry equipment were employed over a controlled burn to test the feasibility of a disaster monitoring platform for hazardous duty. ALTUS was employed to demonstrate the long duration, altitude, and payload capability of unmanned platforms for acquiring disaster related data.