According to a recent Axios article, 80 wildfires are roaring across the western U.S. Dry lightning, temperatures over 100 degrees, and no rain are causing devastation from California to Montana… again. Just four days ago, the tally was 1.2 million acres burned by the 80 wildfires. Is there a way to mitigate the impact?
While it’s impossible to eliminate the cause of most of the wildfires (yes, proper land management has been missing for years, but that’s another story), early detection just became a greater possibility.
The administration announced it will build advanced wildfire detection using NOAA satellites to help the Interior and Agriculture Departments detect wildfires early, track them in real-time, and provide data for public safety and air quality modeling.
The Department of Commerce’s National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) signed an agreement with the Department of the Interior and the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA)’s Forest Service to use the NOAA Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite — R series (GOES-R) data to detect and report wildfire starts. $40 million is earmarked for the project.
President Biden’s Investing in America agenda, through the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, is bringing much-needed assistance to communities across the country, deploying innovative tools to tackle wildfires, increasing the resilience of lands facing the threat of wildland fires, and better supporting federal wildland firefighters. The law includes $5 billion for these Departments to invest in preparedness, fuels management, post-fire restoration, and fire science over five years.
Using NOAA’s GOES-R satellite data will enable early detection and provide firefighters with a better assessment of wildfire conditions, allow faster hot-spot detection, and provide the ability to track wildfire progression in real-time. GOES-R series satellites can detect wildfires before they are spotted on the ground or reported to 911. The satellites can also be used to pinpoint the exact location of a fire after smoke reports occur. These improved capabilities will support interagency efforts to protect people and communities from increasingly devastating wildfires.
Monitoring smoke plumes in near real-time helps direct firefighting efforts from the air. GOES-R satellites provide information on the exact location and drift of smoke from a fire.
Sitting here in Idaho with horrible air quality because of the number of fires in nearby Oregon as well as here in Idaho… anything that mitigates the impact of wildfires is appreciated.
