NASA Banking on Drones to Improve Wildfire Response

NASA is working on using drones and advanced aviation technologies to enhance coordination and operations during wildfires.

The ACERO Project

The Advanced Capabilities for Emergency Response Operations (ACERO) project, spearheaded by the Ames Research Center in Silicon Valley, California, is developing airspace management technologies that enable responders to integrate drones into wildfire operations safelyNASA notes that the lack of tools and situational awareness for responders to identify where firefighting drones are flying is a big hurdle to utilizing the tech for aerial suppression operations.

The solutions that ACERO is creating will give all responders a shared understanding of the situation, preventing conflicts with aircraft operations and lowering the possibility of coming into contact with airborne threats.

This situational awareness will allow responders to securely integrate drones into wildfire operations as well as continuously suppress and monitor a fire throughout its existence, which is currently not possible, according to NASA.

Drone use would increase the window of time available for aerial suppression operations, lowering the danger to pilots' safety and increasing the efficacy of such operations.

Drones could also be used for prescribed burns, controlled fires started by professionals to remove dead brush that serves as a fuel source and can cause major wildland fires.

NASA notes that remote control drone operations would be safer and more affordable instead of using ground employees and aircraft.

NASA and Partners

In the upcoming years, NASA will collaborate with business and wildfire response organizations to conduct collaborative field tests of recently developed aviation technologies.

The Aeronautics Research Mission Directorate, Science Mission Directorate, and Space Technology Mission Directorate of NASA will be highlighted in these demos.

The Aeronautics Research Mission Directorate funds ACERO, and the organization's Airspace Operations and Safety Program is in charge of its administration.

The development of aerial communication and information-sharing technologies by NASA is expected to enhance the management of airspace during wildland fires and give emergency response workers more timely information to help in decision-making.

These developments are vital for the creation of novel drone missions for airborne wildfire response, such as fire suppression, equipment delivery to ground crews, and communication relays in remote locations.

Since pilots run the risk of flying into terrain or colliding with other aircraft when there is poor visibility, current aerial firefighting operations are restricted to certain periods.

As per NASA, drones allow aircraft suppression operations to be expanded beyond the restricted visibility, resulting in safer suppression operations for pilots and ground employees,

The US Forest Service reports that every year, wildfires burn over 1.5 million acres of woods and grasslands across the nation, which significantly contributes to the release of carbon dioxide that warms the globe.

These fires are difficult to put out, and it costs an average of $2.9 billion to do so over five years.

Hence, the ACERO project's collaboration with other government agencies, the science community, and commercial industries is vital to develop a concept of operations for the future of wildland fire management.