NASA budget cuts endanger the forest fire fighting programs

Hinesville, Georgia – For an altitude of 9,000 feet, NASA scientists have climbed hundreds of acres of burning brushes this month at the base of the army of Fort Stewart, monitoring the flames by spreading and engulfing the earth.

This time, the fire was controlled, intentionally fixed to eliminate the area in what is called a “prescribed burn”. But research, which makes up the Firensense de Nasa project, will help firefighters fight real forest fires when they ignite, and this could even help land managers prevent certain flames from starting in the first place.

However, with the Trump administration would offer steep budget cuts to NASA and other federal agencies, programs like Firesens could be in danger – while happening again.

Last year, forest fires burned nearly 9 million acres in the United States, according to the National internestitutions fire center. The agency’s annual report revealed that the number of forest fires reported in 2024 and burned acres were both “significantly superior to the averages of five and 10 years”.

Studies have shown that climate change not only makes forest fires more frequent, but also the intensification of flames that sink, which makes them more destructive.

“The problem is to worsen,” said Michele Steinberg, director of the Forest Fire Division at the National Fire Protection Association for non -profit. “We see more fires in the areas, we do not see them normally and in the seasons, we do not expect. We see hot and more intense burning fires, and when you just get the right conditions, they can move very quickly. ”

Extreme fires pose enormous health, financial and environmental risks, which makes studies crucial to protect lives and livelihoods.

NASA is hardly the only one to focus its attention on forest fires. The American forest service, the interior department and the land management office are some of the main federal agencies involved in the response and prevention of forest fires. But what the space agency does differently is the application of advanced technologies – including some that are used in the same way for satellites in space – to fill the gaps in knowledge.

“Firesen was born because NASA said: forest fires are an important and emerging problem, and we will invest and we will use our skills to help the rest of the government do its job better,” said Michael Wara, lawyer and principal researcher at Stanford University who specializes in climate and energy policy.

Project scientists work with local, state and federal agencies – as well as partners in the academic world – to better understand the behavior of fire and intensity, concerns of air quality during and after forest fires and how ecosystems meet after the flames. Researchers also study how to manage vegetation in vulnerable areas to reduce the risk of forest fires or stop their rapid spread.

“The objective is to take our innovative technology, get into the field with forest fire managers and transfer this innovative technology so that they can use it on a forest fire,” said Jacquelyn Shuman, project scientist for Nasa Firesense.

The project uses an instrument known as the spectrometer which is the same design as that which operates in orbit in the low earth aboard the international space station. It is this technology that can provide detailed and precise measures that help firefighters and land managers before, during and after extreme fires.

In Fort Stewart, scientists flew over the prescribed burn, looking at its movement and mapping the fire using a sophisticated infrared instrument known as Aviris-3 (abbreviation of visible imaging and infrared airborne imaging 3). The fire would eventually swallow around 700 acres.

They paid special attention to the speed at which the fire was spread, where it was gaining ground and how hot it was.

The prescribed burns are fires that are intentionally ready to manage ecosystems that need periodic fires to stay healthy. They are also made to reduce the amount of dry and flammable vegetation that could easily take the flame.

Burns are carefully planned and executed in specific weather conditions to maintain control of their spread, but these practices also work as scientific experiences for forest researchers, said Harrison Raine, a former elite firefighter who is now working as a project coordinator for Firesense.

“We are trying to combine all aspects of the fire life cycle and use science to understand what is happening and what we can do about it,” said Raine, who worked like a “Hotshot” firefighter, a member of a highly qualified and specialized team of people who are sent to wild fire across the country.

Raine fought forest fires in Idaho, Montana, Colorado, Arizona, New Mexico and California, and work is more than a simple job for him.

“This is a deep personal problem for me,” he said. “I come from Los Angeles. In a way, I saw devastation and I really try to tackle this huge problem. And we need all the tools we have, and science is great. ”

But with major questions that persist on the financing of NASA and other federal agencies, the future of Firesen is perhaps in danger.

We don’t know how, the case Reported deep cuts to the direction of the NASA scientific missionwhich includes the initiatives of the earth sciences.

“No funding decision has been finalized,” said Rachel Cauley, spokesperson for the White House management and budget office at NBC News in a statement. NASA refused to comment and directed budgetary issues at the OMB.

While the administration is preparing to soon unveil a draft budget, the anxieties concerning the possible cuts and their consequences have been raised.

“As a former chief of NASA, I am proud of the wide range of efforts that the agency supports the surveillance and response of forest fires,” said representative George Whitesides (D-Calif.) Told NBC News in a statement. “The cuts in crucial programs of forest fires like the Firensense put communities like mine – which are barely starting to rebuild after devastating fires in southern California – at extreme risks.”

NASA Forest Forest Research would have large -scale impacts, Wara said of Stanford University, adding that the space agency has made enormous contributions to the modernization of forest models and data on flames.

“There is no doubt that our level of information on the risks of fire and fire improved with Firesense,” he said. “It would be a shame to lose it, because it would be very difficult to come back.”