High-flying Intel
Over the years, air attacks have become more effective. They now can provide strategic intelligence to ground teams while being staged for very little cost. New innovations allow air attacks to see through smoke, have better situational awareness and transmit frontline fire maps and photos in near real time to ground teams.
Tablet PCs show the plane's track in real time over topos and make fire mapping easy. Batteries last longer than four-hour missions, and a Bluetooth GPS eliminates the cockpit spaghetti of wires.
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One of the new innovations is inexpensive data transmission from the air. Simply e-mailing fire pictures from a camera phone works when there's a signal, but when cellular coverage is unavailable, airplanes have a reliable delivery alternative that costs about the same: the Iridium satellite network.
Another breakthrough lies in infrared (IR) technology, which has become significantly less expensive. IR cameras with the same resolution as the already proven Fire Watch Cobra from the U.S. Forest Service cost as little as $3,500, and are even less to install. Thanks to the commoditization of electronics, breakthrough technology has become smaller, more powerful and easier to use.
How easy? Air attacks and ground teams are very busy, and many find new technology intimidating. But their knowledge of how to view e-mail or photos on their phones puts new wildfire technology within reach. Using infrared in the plane is almost as easy as looking out a window; on the ground, IR photos display on phones and laptops. Using airborne Geographic Information System data is just as simple, and transmitting Google Earth map data is easier than sending an e-mail.
Cell phones don't always work in the remote areas where wildfires burn. Satellites, however, provide complete coverage. All federal fire aircraft send automatic flight-following, or AFF, pings every two minutes over Iridium satellites, allowing the aircraft to be tracked in real time via Google Earth or the AFF Web page. During the unused 119 seconds between AFF pings, software can transfer e-mail attachments that may include maps of hot spots and slopovers, infrared screen shots or regular photos.
The Latitude SkyNode S100 and S200, which have been in use for many years, make all of this possible. These integrated aeronautical communications devices include an interface that connects to any computer, and the free Latitude Messenger software can send e-mail attachments over the satellite link without complexity, prompts or interruption to AFF pings. Prior to flight, the user enters a single group e-mail address. While flying, the user can drag-and-drop any photo, map or IR image to the software applet, which will then deliver the file to everyone on the e-mail list.
Another useful application is airborne GIS. This simple moving map software can be overlaid with fire GIS and then saved as KML files. KML, or keyhole markup language, enables anyone with Google Earth installed to be one click away from viewing the highlighted fire line. Whether for extended or initial attack, this information can be sent to any firefighter with a picture phone, but generally the incident command team, dispatch, operations and situation units, and the geographic information systems specialist want it the most. Air-attack photos and maps then can be entered into incident GIS or just looked at by anybody wondering what is currently happening.
Of course, sending incident maps and IR images to the ground is of secondary concern for the air-attack team, which uses IR and GIS for safety and tactical reasons. Because this system is both hands-off and always on, it becomes another window in the airplane. Everything turns on automatically with the airplane and works without intervention, and it can be viewed at a glance when needed. Tracking crews through the smoke; discovering smokeless spot fires or lightning strikes at a glance; zooming into the name of every bump, creek and road; and instantly finding hand lines or drop points are all worth their weight in gold. Crews can catch fires that have jumped a road or crossed a creek when they're the size of a barbeque instead of an acre.
Gyro-stabilized, 360°-rotating gimbals are still great for extensive mapping, but simplicity has its benefits. A forward-looking infrared camera, or FLIR, is pointed strategically out the right window, where the air tactical group supervisor always looks. This is called SLIR, or side-looking infrared, and there are no moving parts or joysticks. Directionally oriented, moving-map "topos" that show agency boundaries, cultural features, aviation hazards and the fire perimeter improve safety and elevate situational awareness to a new level. A mouse click will zoom down to individual buildings, even with phone number and address. Nothing needs to be touched or operated. No third person is needed on the plane. For the first time, beginning infrared users need no training — using SLIR is as intuitive as looking out a window.
Not all air tactical group supervisors draw maps, but for those that do, drawing electronically becomes faster and easier than drawing on paper. Fire maps updated in the air can be instantly transmitted to the ground for the GIS specialist or anyone with Google Earth to see.
The ability to transmit over satellite is free with the Latitude system; no additional hardware or monthly base subscription is needed. The actual transmission time, like cellular airtime for phone calls, does cost money. Most fire drawings take about a minute to transfer, which costs about $1.00, so that dollar of airtime instantly delivers a fresh map to any number of people on the ground. Photos are larger and cost more.
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