I think the choice to study fire,
generally, is a bit of an occupational hazard. It’s true
we’re not necessarily looking at the verdant, green parts of our planet.
We’re headed to the end of the road. We’re looking at areas
of rainforest that have been cleared and burned. We’re capturing
scorched landscapes.
[intro music]
NASA EXPLORERS
Episode FiveThe New Normal
FIRES
In this series, we’ve been following the fire season
around the world. First, in the American West,
in the early part of summer — the start of the fire season.
Then in high northern latitudes — Canada and Alaska.
Then finally, in the Philippines, as the summer became
fall. In the past, you could count on the fire
season eventually coming to an end, but we’re now learning that that's
not really the case anymore.
What we’re seeing is that areas that have been flammable are becoming more flammable, pushing those systems
into either extreme conditions, or a year-round fire
season, where fires are literally possible at any time.
We caught up with Dr. Doug Morton to find out the extent of the damage.
Hotter and drier conditions, adding wind,
you end up with fires that are moving faster, burning hotter than what we’ve seen before.
Can we better understand, anticipate and characterize
the changes in our planet that come from those extreme fires?
Actually, yes, we can.
Myself and my staff at the GIS center worked closely with colleagues at Goddard
Space Flight Center to make this thing happen.
This is Keith Weber, the wildfire rehabilitation expert that pioneered
a new groundbreaking tool — the Rehabilitation Capability
Convergence for Ecosystem Recovery includes a function that allows
fire responders to triangulate their wildfire response.
The tool can geolocate everything from burned areas to
potential landslides to impacts on endangered species.
But RECOVER really gained momentum after one fire in particular.
I remember looking at our whiteboard that showed
all the real high-priority things we
need to be doing and that whiteboard was clear.
And as I was walking out, I talked to some of my students and I said, “I think
the wildfire year is done. We got it wrapped up.”
Well, shouldn’t have said that. Because the next day
one of our users in California,
Woolsey Fire started going. It became much larger,
I think, they thought it would, because of those big winds. And it
you know, really grew very rapidly.
Well, at that point, we were working with that team on a daily basis
doing refreshes, as we call it, as the fire grew and grew and grew
everyday until we had that thing out.
Keith’s team is making a tangible difference by saving property, resources and lives.
Innovations like these represent a promising future.
As we move from today’s cutting edge
science into tomorrow’s prediction, response and understanding,
the work we do today opens up an opportunity to do that
so much better going forward.
There’s so many science topics that today are on the cutting edge of our understanding
and what get me and my science colleagues motivated to go out into the field and keep working
on these problems. Can we improve the way that we can
forecast, for example, fire risk? Not just for tomorrow, but
for ten days for now. It might help managers,
communities prepare and respond to changing fire weather conditions.
Like all of us, our NASA Explorers and partners
in exploration face the daily decision to either choose apathy
or get to work. The future is uncertain
but we choose to meet the challenges of this new normal head on.
FIRES
Executive Producers Lauren Ward Patrick Lynch Series Producers Lauren Ward Katy Mersmann Matt Radcliff Social Media Producers Katy Mersmann Brittany Brown Sarah Loff
Videographers Katy Mersmann Lauren Ward Jim Round John Caldwell Rob Andreoli Rafael Luis Méndez Peña Animators Dave Glantz Walt Feimer
Explorers in Order of Appearance Doug Morton Ambre Soja Bruce Anderson Kevin Schaeffer Hal Maring Gemma Narisma Keith Weber
Special Thanks to: Peter Griffith Elizabeth Hoy Emily Schaller Kate Squires Maria-Jose Vinas Katie Jepson Ellen Gray Ryan Fitzgibbons Cindy Gilday Laura Bourgeaeu-Chavez Michaela Battaglia and Team Charles Miller Bruce Hanna David Currie
NASA EXPLORERS