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UARC employees honored for wildfire monitoring effort

The NASA Ames Research Center has honored six UCSC employees at the University Affiliated Research Center (UARC) as part of a Group Achievement Award for a multiagency team that helped firefighters battle the deadly Esperanza fire in Southern California last year.

The Wildfire Research and Applications Partnership (WRAP), which includes UARC Earth Sciences researchers, used the Altair Unmanned Aerial System (UAS) to provide valuable real-time fire information to the Esperanza Fire Incident Command Center. Those honored in the NASA award include Jeff Meyers, technical area manager of the UARC Earth Sciences research team; Ted Hildum, staff scientist; Bob Billings, senior field engineer; Kent Dunwoody, senior field engineer; Eric Fraim, remote sensing data analyst; and Haiping Su, staff scientist.

The operation during the Esperanza firestorm in October 2006 was the first time that an umanned aerial system operating in national airspace was used to provide real-time fire condition information. Acting in response to an emergency request from the California Governor's Office of Emergency Services, the multi-agency WRAP team was deployed to southern California. The team provided valuable information about the fire perimeter, hot spots, and fire behavior to the Esperanza Fire Incident Command Center within 24 hours of the governor's request.

During the mission, real-time data was gathered by sensors aboard the unmanned aerial system, telemetered to ground-based computers, hosted on GoogleEarth, and delivered to the command center for the fire. It was particularly important to map the fire's quickly changing behavior and detect hot spots that had jumped fire lines. Four firefighters died in the Esperanza Fire, which burned more than 40,000 acres in Riverside County.

The efforts of the WRAP team members on the Esperanza Fire Emergency UAS Mission led to an improved understanding of critical fire information by the fire management services, showcased a first-time use of UAS capabilities on a disaster event, and opened the doors to future uses of sensors, UAS platforms, and real-time decision-support systems for national emergencies.

The Airborne Sensor Facility at NASA Ames is managed by UCSC through the UARC (see earlier story).