(reporter) This year's wildfires season is off to a blazing start, NASA is
tracking wildfires across the globe, and here to tell us more about it
live from NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland is Doctor
Lesley Ott. Thank you for joining us. (Dr. Ott) Thank you for having me.
Wildfires have been ranging in parts of the U.S. this year. Can you show us this view from space?
(Dr. Ott) One of the unique things about our satellites is that they give us a really detailed
view of fires as their happening. So, right now we are going to take a look at few recent
fires that you probably heard about. This is the Fort McMurray fire that happen in Canada back
in May and we are transitioning to two fires that are going on right now
California, the fire near L.A. and the fire in Monterey which is still
raging on. So, Satellites gives us a really unique perspective on fires
by tracking a number of different aspects. We can see the hotspot while the fire is going on
we can see the smoke that's pouring off. And then after the fire is completed, we can actually
we get the look at the burn scar. see the impact on vegetation and even the vegetation
regrowth in years to come. So it's a really unique vantage point we have from
space. (reporter) It's been an active year around the world for wildfires
How do fires on the other side of the world affect us?
(Dr. Ott) You know we are very conscious of fires that happen in our own backyard or
in the U.S. and Canada. But most of the fires that we see in the world actually
happen in places that far away. Satellites are giving us the best
view that we have ever had of the global picture of fires.
So, here you are seeing some of those fires accounts. You can see most of the fires are
happening in places like Africa, South America, or Indonesia
Even though in impacts on vegetation are local, the impacts on air quality
can be more of a regional or global concern.
We are looking right now at computer simulation of smoke aerosols in green and you can see
that those smoke particles can travel all the way from Africa to South America.
and vice versa. So really an important thing to track
over a long distances to make sure we can understand how fires can affect air
quality in distant places. So we can good information to people so they can take care of
themselves. (reporter) El-Nino has dried out the Amazon this year
making it vulnerable to wild fires, what impacts could this have on the summer Olympics?
(Dr. Ott) Yeah that's a really interesting story we are following right now. So, NASA is
part of an international cooperation of coronation
satellites to track rainfall. This is really exciting, because this best picture we ever
had of global rainfall. Using that, which is what you are seeing right now. you
can track rainfall patterns. We can see that those have shifted with El-Nino. We can see
that Brazil, the northern part is dryer that it typically is. And
using another satellite called GRACE, we can actually track what the impact of those
rainfall changes are below the ground. And you can see the red area showing us
really, really, dry conditions in northern part of Brazil. So that area is primed
to burn. If we do have fires in that area then depending on the winds
speed some of that smoke can be transported to into Rio
potentially affecting air quality for the Olympic participants and
all of the fans. So it's something we are watching very closely and a number of scientists
around the world as well. (reporter) NASA is doing groundbreaking
research around the world to study wildfires what are we learning?
(Dr. Ott) That is a really good question. We talked a lot about the satellite picture.
but we are also using a number of different resources
from planes to ground research. To really fill out the picture
and make sure how fires are affecting us on the ground and in our daily lives.
you are seeing a snap shot of footage from a plane. This is actually a student
research of fire impacts in California. Then we are seeing people
on the ground in Alaska. This a field campaign that is on going called ABOVE
were people are looking at the impacts of fires on vegetation
so we can actually see in much more detail and complement the broad
view we get from the satellite with some of these plane and ground study.
(reporter) And where can we go to learn more? (Dr. Ott) You can check us out
on the web at nasa.gov/fires or on Twitter @NASAEarth