For years, NASA has used the vantage point of space, combined with airborne and ground-based field campaigns, to decipher the impact of fires—from first spark to final puff of smoldering smoke— and help other agencies protect life and property.
But the effects of fires linger long after they’re extinguished: They can upend ecosystems, influence climate and disrupt communities. While NASA keeps an eye on today’s fires, it also tackles the big-picture questions that help fire managers plan for the future.
This summer, NASA is embarking on several field campaigns across the world to investigate longstanding questions surrounding fire and smoke. Aircraft will fly through smoke and clouds to improve air quality, weather and climate forecasting, and investigate fire-burned forests to capture ecosystem changes that have global impact.
Music: Motion Blur by Sam Dodson, End of the Quarter by Austin Jordan Credit: NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center/LK Ward
NASA’s satellite imagery and model forecasts play an important role in monitoring the performance of crops worldwide and preparing for food shortages. NASA’s view from space helps government agencies forecast food insecurity, like during the drought in Southern Africa in 2018.
Music credit: Anticipating Outcomes by Simon Begg [PRS] Credit: NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center Kathryn Mersmann (USRA): Lead Producer Maria-Jose Vinas Garcia (Telophase): Lead Writer Ellen T. Gray (ADNET): Producer Trent L. Schindler (USRA): Lead Visualizer Christa Peters-Lidard (NASA/GSFC): Scientist John D. Bolten (NASA/GSFC): Scientist Amy McNally (SAIC): Scientist
NASA’s Oceans Melting Greenland (OMG) mission uses ships and planes to measure how ocean temperatures affect Greenland’s vast icy expanses. Jakobshavn Glacier, known in Greenlandic as Sermeq Kujalle, on Greenland’s central western side, has been one of the island’s largest contributor’s to sea level rise, losing mass at an accelerating rate.
In a new study, the OMG team found that between 2016 and 2017, Jakobshavn Glacier grew slightly and the rate of mass loss slowed down. They traced the causes of this thickening to a temporary cooling of ocean temperatures in the region.
Narrated by OMG Principal Investigator Josh Willis. Music: Rising Tides by Rainman [PRS] Complete transcript available. Credit: NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center/Kathryn Mersmann
