[slate] NASA satellites provide views
of actively burning fires. The smoke plumes that are leaving those fires
changing air quality across this country and around the world.
And that information provides some of the first indications of new wildfires
that then gets sent down to managers on the ground who have to make day to day decisions
on how to fight those wildfires. [slate]
Some place is always burning. And from NASA's view from space
we can detect those wildfires and start to put together the picture of how fires
contribute to changes in the entire Earth system. Fires
as far away as Africa or Australia add greenhouse gasses to the atmosphere
changing our planet. Smoke from those fires can drift and change
air quality across cities. And at NASA our job is to take
our 20 satellite instruments that are detecting active fires
observing the smoke and ash that leaves those fires and
observing the changes that link those processes together in the air system.
[slate] El Nino has
been changing weather patterns, redistributing rainfall around the
world since last October. Changing fires in Indonesia
and then later impacting fires where the wildfire season is just getting
started like in the southern Amazon. One of the most amazing things about
NASA's observations of rainfall, of satellite ground water detection
and actively burning fires is we can understand the way in which
climate changes linked to El Nino are changing fires now
and continue to change fires over the next year. Places like the Amazon
had less rainfall as we result of El Nino and that region is now predisposed
to wildfires. Wildfires that could lead to smoke and changes in
air quality across southern Brazil including during the Rio Olympics.
[slate] NASA satellite instruments are really critical
to help guide the operational firefighting that's done by the forest service
and other agencies at the Bureau of Land Management. NASA data
captures the daily progression of those fires and that information gets fed
directly to the ground. The fires we're seeing now around the L.A. basin
are changing air quality for an enormous number of people that live in
Southern California. Those fires are burning through regions that are drier this year
than they've been in the past because of the multi-year drought that's left most of California
ready to burn. [slate]
NASA is actively studying fires to understand more about the way in which fires
release smoke, changes to air quality, greenhouse gasses
that change our whole planet. And putting those pieces together requires we
make measurements on the ground. Using NASA aircraft we can fly through
smoke plumes and make detailed maps of how fires are changing these ecosystems
and we can link that information with what we can see from space. That whole puzzle
is what keeps me and scientists like me at NASA engaged in understanding
our changing planet. [slate]
To learn more go to nasa.gov/fires.
Or check out hashtag #EarthRightNow.