Airborne Infrared Line Scanners Map a Fire Perimeter Overnight
A fixed-wing aircraft flying a planned track at altitude carries an infrared line scanner, an instrument that sweeps a single detector line across the track while the aircraft's forward motion builds the second dimension, producing a continuous georeferenced infrared strip of the ground. Operated in the United States by the National Infrared Operations programme, these aircraft fly at night, when background surfaces are cool and the fire's own emission stands out, and their product is the authoritative fire perimeter and heat map that arrives in the incident's hands before the morning briefing. Two features are worth carrying away. The scanner sees through smoke that would defeat any visible camera, because it is measuring emitted infrared rather than reflected light, so it can map an active fire that no one can look at. And the product is one snapshot per night per fire: it is the most accurate perimeter available and it is already hours old by the time it is used. After this Concept you can say why perimeter mapping is flown at night and what the age of a mapped perimeter means for planning the next day.
This Concept is waiting for its first lesson!
A fixed-wing aircraft flying a planned track at altitude carries an infrared line scanner, an instrument that sweeps a single detector line across the track while the aircraft's forward motion builds the second dimension, producing a continuous georeferenced infrared strip of the ground. Operated in the United States by the National Infrared Operations programme, these aircraft fly at night, when background surfaces are cool and the fire's own emission stands out, and their product is the authoritative fire perimeter and heat map that arrives in the incident's hands before the morning briefing. Two features are worth carrying away. The scanner sees through smoke that would defeat any visible camera, because it is measuring emitted infrared rather than reflected light, so it can map an active fire that no one can look at. And the product is one snapshot per night per fire: it is the most accurate perimeter available and it is already hours old by the time it is used. After this Concept you can say why perimeter mapping is flown at night and what the age of a mapped perimeter means for planning the next day.
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