Ikhana Project Update

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Anatomy of a Wildfire Disaster Response
14 December 2006 Brent Cobleigh, NASA -
DFRC Vince Ambrosia NASA - ARC
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Western States Fire Mission

• On October 25th, NASA, USFS, NOAA, and General
  Atomics completed the last of several 20 hour
  UAS wildfire mission demonstrations over Yosemite
  National Park
• Following the mission, the wildfire payload was
  removed
• The COA for these mission required about 5 months
  of negotiation

• Fully Autonomous.
• Optimized for fire and thermal target
  characterization.
• Real-Time data telemetry capability.
• Full on-board processing to Level 2 data (geo-
  and terrain-rectified).

Band Wavelength ?m 1
0.42- 0.45 2 0.45- 0.52
(TM1) 3 0.52- 0.60 (TM2) 4
0.60- 0.62 5 0.63-
0.69 (TM3) 6 0.69- 0.75 7
0.76- 0.90 (TM4) 8
0.91- 1.05 9
1.55- 1.75 (TM5) 10
2.08- 2.35 (TM7) 11
3.60- 3.79 (VIIRS M12)
12 10.26-11.26
10.26-11.26(VIIRS M15)
AMS wildfire sensor
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Emergency Response Timeline Oct 27, 2006
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Emergency Response Timeline Oct 27, 2006
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Emergency Response Timeline Oct 27, 2006
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Combined COA and Range Safety Boundaries
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Thermal band combination over Esperanza fire
(545pm)
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Results

• First Emergency COA for civilian disaster
• Process worked very well
• 94 images (geo- and terrain-corrected) and over
  20 hot-spot perimeters were transmitted in
  real-time from the aircraft to a NASA-Ames
  server. The data and information were
  re-distributed (in real-time) to a Decision
  Support System (DSS) within Google Earth,
  enabling access to the data by the fire mapping
  teams.
• Science team met with California Department of
  Forestry (CDF) Plans Chief, Infrared mapping
  group, and Chief CDF
• Downlink data was available to them all night
• Data products were used for planning and morning
  briefings
• Got a good impression of how the command center
  works and how the data can integrate in the
  future
• Requested meeting to discuss future collaboration
• CA Emergency Operations Center expressed interest
  in follow-up collaboration during the mission
• Press releases from NASA, GA, FAA
• Downplayed due to loss of life
• Delivered feedback to FAA on the mission /
  lessons learned

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Preplanning UAS Emergency Response Missions

• Need an existing COA package on file with FAA
• Airworthiness assessment
• Mission rules and emergency procedures
• Sensor and Aircraft need to be co-located
• Emergency Response Procedures must be in place
• logistics, phone numbers, timelines
• Deployment plan (if required)
• SatCom provider
• Pre-coordinate with data users
• Integrated into ConOps
• Users need easy-to-access data products
• Users need easy-to-use data products
• Method for real-time communication between
  operators and users
• Preplanned routes
• Range safety involvement
• Email equipped Cell phones for the leads
• Contracting mechanisms (as required to conduct
  the mission)
• Crew rest plan (if sustained operations are
  required)

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