Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) is a proven, effective tool to monitor and map changing topography in rapidly expanding wildfire disaster situations. The broad area coverage provided by SAR can be used to detail areas of fire damage while high-resolution imagery can be used to determine fire movement and possibly provide warning to areas in the fire’s path. General Atomics Aeronautical Systems, Inc. (GA-ASI) recently collected data with an airborne Lynx SAR, operating in the Ku Band, in conjunction with a FLIR Systems Star Safire 380-HD Electrical-optical/Infrared (EO/IR) camera system on Southern California’s Blue Cut Fire. The Blue Cut Fire began in the Cajon Pass East of Los Angeles and burned a total of 36,000 acres4 . GA-ASI was able to overfly the fire, map the area, and detail the current location, as well as additional areas where the fire was spreading. Image Analysts were able to review the collected data and provide valuable information regarding location and possible fire direction. Analysts also conducted fire damage assessments to determine which structures were lost or damaged in the Fire. The real-time analysis of SAR and EO/IR data collections has the potential to increase effectiveness of firefighting crews attempting to contain a dynamic wildfire significantly
Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) is well known to afford imaging in darkness and through clouds, smoke, and other
obscurants. As such, it is particularly useful for mapping and monitoring a variety of natural and man-made disasters.
A portfolio of SAR image examples has been collected using General Atomics Aeronautical Systems, Inc.'s (GA-ASI's)
Lynx® family of Ku-Band SAR systems, flown on both operational and test-bed aircraft. Images are provided that
include scenes of flooding, ice jams in North Dakota, agricultural field fires in southern California, and ocean oil slicks
from seeps off the coast of southern California.
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