NASA

Summary

NASA’s Earth Science Division (ESD) established the Wildland FireSense Project to consolidate science objectives and applications toward a broad set of wildland fire management objectives, focusing on improving the prediction, management, and understanding of wildland fire impacts across the U.S. and globally. Critical gaps exist in airborne fire mapping during high fire activity. Xentity provides subject matter expertise to a Principal Investigator team architecting an automated, high-speed data pipeline for NASA’s AVIRIS-3 (Airborne Visible/Infrared Imaging Spectrometer-3).

Problem and Solution

During peak fire seasons, US airborne fire mapping resources managed through the National Infrared Operations (NIROPS) and the Interagency Awareness and Assessment (IAA) Hub frequently face saturation. High demand across multiple regions often leaves imaging requests unfilled, particularly for daytime operations. Furthermore, current systems lack the hyperspectral depth required for “value-added” analysis, such as canopy water thickness or subsurface fire detection, leaving a data gap in comprehensive situational awareness for fire managers and analysts.

While AVIRIS-3 is a premier hyperspectral instrument, its transition from a research tool to an operational asset requires a “Data-First” approach to processing and delivery. This project establishes a real-time, on-aircraft processing workflow designed to deliver georeferenced fire products—including detections, perimeters, and intensity composites—to incident personnel with sub-10 minute latency. By integrating these hyperspectral capabilities with the Enterprise Geospatial Portal (EGP), the solution could supplement stretched interagency resources and introduce daytime imaging capabilities previously unavailable to fire operations. To modernize the AVIRIS-3 data lifecycle, this project focuses on Onboard Edge Processing, Automated Pipeline Development, Geospatial Precision & Latency Balancing, and Stakeholder Integration to ensure “Data-First” products flow directly into existing operational environments used by Incident Command.

Outcome and Benefits

The project transitions NASA’s high-fidelity research data into actionable intelligence for the fire community:

  • Operational Readiness: Successfully raises the Applications Readiness Level (ARL) of AVIRIS-3 real-time fire products to ARL 8/9, moving the technology from experimental to mission-proven.
  • Rapid Delivery: Demonstrates the ability to deliver operationally useful fire products within a one-year development cycle, maintaining a sub-10 minute latency from capture to uplink.
  • Resource Augmentation: Provides the Forest Service and IAA with a surge capacity for active fire mapping, specifically addressing the unfilled need for high-quality daytime imaging.
  • Advanced Analytics: Beyond basic perimeters, the hyperspectral pipeline enables “value-added” products—such as dead fuel cover, burn fraction, and retardant thickness—giving Fire Behavior Analysts (FBAN) and GIS Specialists (GISS) deeper insights for suppression and management strategies.