Imaging sensor band comparison for situational awareness in wildfires

In recent decades, wildfires have become increasingly widespread and hazardous. Dryer, hotter weather combined with more frequent heat waves leave forest areas susceptible to sudden, intense, and fast-growing forest fires. To protect private property and mitigate the damage, Hotshot firefighters are deployed into these dangerous situations. Extensive satellite and aerial platforms possess optical techniques for monitoring wildfire risks and boundary tracking. Small unmanned aerial system (sUAS)-based EO/IR systems provide a solution for real-time, high resolution, targeted response to acquire information critical to the safety and efficacy of wildfire mitigation. Real-time imagery from a sUAS of the position of Hotshots and the progression of the fire boundary would be easily obtained and offer a method of ensuring safe deployment. An ideal sensor system for situational awareness in this environment would be able to image the ambient terrain and firefighters with good contrast while also detecting fire signatures and imaging through the smoke. Longer wavelength infrared bands have demonstrated imaging through the smoke of forest fires. However, near the wildfire where the Hotshots work, they also receive strong radiometric signals from the temperature of the smoke. The emitted signal of the smoke can obscure the line of sight similarly to the scattering effect of wildfire smoke in the visible spectrum. The reflective and emissive components of a wildfire scene are studied and compared in the visible (VIS, 0.4–0.7 µm), shortwave infrared (SWIR, 1.0–1.7 µm), extended SWIR (eSWIR, 2.0–2.5 µm), and longwave infrared (LWIR, 8–14 µm). Both a radiometric model and calibrated field measurements find a band that has the highest, to our knowledge, probability for a continuous line of sight for terrain, firefighters, and fire signatures in a wildfire scene.