Earth Science Technology Office

Langley Research Center

Wildfires

NASA Develops Sensor to Improve Firefighter Safety

With peak wildfire season approaching, scientists with NASA’s FireSense project have created low-cost thermal sensors to install on fire bulldozers that will alert firefighters when heat from a nearby fire reaches a dangerous level. The sensors also provide researchers with important data on what happens beneath the canopy during a fire.

Posted May 28, 2026

EMIT (Earth Surface Mineral Dust Source Investigation)

Earth

Human Dimensions

International Space Station (ISS)

Oceans

Water on Earth

NASA Sensor on Space Station Eyes Contamination off California Coast

Proof-of-concept results from the mouth of the Tijuana River in San Diego County show how an instrument called EMIT could aid wastewater detection. An instrument built at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory to map minerals on Earth is now revealing clues about water quality.

Posted June 12, 2025

c-FIRST Team Sets Sights on Future Fire-observing Satellite Constellations

Two NASA-developed technologies are key components of a new high-resolution sensor for observing wildfires: High Operating Temperature Barrier Infrared Detector (HOT-BIRD), developed with support from NASA’s Earth Science Technology Office (ESTO), and a cutting-edge Digital Readout Integrated Circuit (DROIC), developed with funding from NASA’s Smal

Posted June 3, 2025

Armstrong Flight Research Center

Airborne Science

Earth Science

Earth's Atmosphere

ER-2

Goddard Space Flight Center

Testing in the Clouds: NASA Flies to Improve Satellite Data

In February, NASA’s ER-2 science aircraft flew instruments designed to improve satellite data products and Earth science observations. From data collection to processing, satellite systems continue to advance, and NASA is exploring how instruments analyzing clouds can improve data measurement methods.

Posted April 17, 2025

Earth Science

Airborne Science

Armstrong Flight Research Center

B200

Earth's Atmosphere

General

Jet Propulsion Laboratory

NASA Uses New Technology to Understand California Wildfires

The January wildfires in California devastated local habitats and communities. In an effort to better understand wildfire behavior, NASA scientists and engineers tried to learn from the events by testing new technology.

Posted March 1, 2025

CYGNSS (Cyclone Global Navigation Satellite System)

Earth Science

Oceans

NASA-developed Technology Supports Ocean Wind Speed Measurements from Commercial Satellite

A science antenna developed with support from NASA’s Earth Science Technology Office (ESTO) is now in low-Earth orbit aboard MuSat2, a commercial remote-sensing satellite flown by the aerospace company Muon Space. The dual-frequency science antenna was originally developed as part of the Next Generation GNSS Bistatic Radar Instrument (NGRx).

Posted November 12, 2024

Earth Science

New NASA Instrument for Studying Snowpack Completes Airborne Testing

Summer heat has significant effects in the mountainous regions of the western United States. Melted snow washes from snowy peaks into the rivers, reservoirs, and streams that supply millions of Americans with freshwater—as much as 75% of the annual freshwater supply for some states.

Posted October 29, 2024

Earth Science

Technology

Wildfires

NASA “Wildfire Digital Twin” Pioneers New AI Models and Streaming Data Techniques for Forecasting Fire and Smoke

NASA’s “Wildfire Digital Twin” project will equip firefighters and wildfire managers with a superior tool for monitoring wildfires and predicting harmful air pollution events and help researchers observe global wildfire trends more precisely.

Posted May 21, 2024

PACE (Plankton, Aerosol, Cloud, Ocean Ecosystem)

Earth