To monitor wildfire activity, Cole Lindsay, an Oregon Department of Forestry multi-mission aircraft operator, views images using data from a short-wave infrared camera. (Kate Kaye Photos) Cole Lindsay was nearly 20 nautical miles in the air Thursday morning above Oregon’s Silver Falls National Park as the massive Beachie Creek Fire burned. Maneuvering a contraption that looked like a tricked-out Microsoft Xbox controller, Lindsay zoomed a camera in on spots along the west edge of the fire ledge. The fire had shape-shifted and smoldered since Wednesday, burning less intensely in some areas.
“You can see those little spots poke out and catch your eye,” said Lindsay, a multi-mission aircraft operator with the Oregon Department of Forestry. “I can zoom right in on it, get coordinates and a map of where it’s at.”
But looking out the window of the small aircraft, dense smoke hovering from the fires burning more than 900,000 acres of land below obscured everything in sight. The only way Lindsay could see through the creamy soot was with the assistance of a thermal image surveillance camera hanging from the plane’s underbelly.
In essence, the camera built by Portland, Ore.-area company FLIR Systems can see through the smoke. It does this by detecting heat using short wave infrared or SWIR thermal imaging, then visualizing the information.
Inside the plane, Lindsay viewed a monitor displaying renderings of heated areas in white on a grey background. His heavy-duty two-handed controller swiveled the camera under the plane, moving it 360 degrees so its sensors could detect heat from any angle miles away anywhere on the ground.
FLIR’s Star SAFIRE 380HD thermal image camera attached on a plane used by the Oregon Department of Forestry.
The forestry department is using this technology for the first time. It began running flights to detect fires in July in its plane equipped with FLIR’s thermal imaging and night vision cameras. Now, the department’s sprawling firefighting force is in full fire support mode.
“Before this technology, it was just using visual line-of-sight and putting aircraft up and looking for fires during the daytime,” said Neal Laugle, ODF’s state aviation manager.
An image captured by the BlackSky Global-4 satellite shows the site of the Beirut chemical explosion at 8:22 a.m. local time Aug. 5. Image resolution is about 1 meter (3 feet) per pixel. (BlackSky Global Monitoring Photo)
The aftermath of this week’s Beirut chemical explosion has been covered in triplicate by U.S. satellite imaging systems — with other nations’ satellites, drones and on-the-scene videos adding perspective.
All that imagery helped outside observers quickly verify that the killing blast was caused not by a terrorist bombing, but by the blow-up of a years-old stockpile of ammonium nitrate. The chemical is typically used as fertilizer but can be turned into dangerous explosives.
The Aug. 4 explosion killed at least 100 people, injured thousands more, sent out a shock wave that damaged buildings up to 6 miles away, and generated a seismic shock that was felt as far away as Cyprus.
Among the spacecraft in position to document the aftermath was BlackSky’s Global-4 satellite, which was built in Seattle for BlackSky and launched last August. BlackSky is a subsidiary of Seattle-based Spaceflight Industries, and has offices in Seattle as well as Virginia.
BlackSky is due to have two more Global satellites launched as soon as this week, as rideshare payloads on a SpaceX Falcon 9 under an arrangement with Seattle’s Spaceflight Inc. They’re among the first satellites built for BlackSky by Tukwila, Wash.-based LeoStella, a joint venture between Spaceflight Industries and Europe’s Thales Alenia Space. The deployment timetable calls for 16 BlackSky satellites to be on duty in low Earth orbit by early next year.
Two of BlackSky’s competitors, Planet and Maxar Technologies, also shared before-and-after views of the Beirut blast scene today:
Before and after SkySat imagery shows the impact of yesterday’s explosion in Beirut.
Imagery captured on May 31, 2020 and today, August 5, 2020. pic.twitter.com/8zCLDOZn4w
— Planet (@planetlabs) August 5, 2020
Devastating image – is that a capsized yacht or similar on the second image? pic.twitter.com/DIoDTAEir8
— Danny (@_danjuna) August 5, 2020
Before and after images from the #explosion that happened in #Beirut, #Lebanon on August 4, 2020. Before image from June 2020 and after image from today, August 5, 2020. More imagery showing the devastation will follow. pic.twitter.com/dfj4ItyTXL
— Maxar Technologies (@Maxar) August 5, 2020
BlackSky, Maxar Technologies and Planet have all won study contracts from the National Reconnaissance Office, under a program aimed at assessing the companies’ ability to provide imagery for the defense and intelligence communities.
NRO says it will start a new round of commercial imagery procurements in late 2020, with an eye toward satisfying government requirements into the 2023 time frame. So the efforts to capture over Beirut isn’t merely meant to satisfy curiosity; they serve to demonstrate what the companies can do for national defense.
In addition to the satellite pictures from those three U.S. companies, there’s a surfeit of sobering imagery from other satellites and drones. Here’s a sampling:
Just hours after the explosion, we at @EUSPACEIMAGING captured the devastating destruction in #Beirut this morning in 50 cm resolution with WorldView-2. View and download the images here https://t.co/ptMqbttkp4 pic.twitter.com/Twc3h9E8Cf
— European Space Imaging (@EUSPACEIMAGING) August 5, 2020
#Lebanon, #Beirut Port: The passenger ship “ORIENT QUEEN” turned over due to #BeirutExplosion. pic.twitter.com/1Bkm2bauW7
— ImageSat Intl. (@ImageSatIntl) August 5, 2020
CNN drone footage shows some of the devastation caused by the massive explosion in Beirut. The blast rocked the Lebanese capital on Tuesday evening, leaving at least 100 dead and thousands injured. pic.twitter.com/WEmFCQ7BSi
— CNN (@CNN) August 5, 2020
This aerial footage shows the full scale of the destruction caused by a massive explosion in Beirut.
For the latest on this blast in Lebanon, head here: https://t.co/XdrK6TQwiy pic.twitter.com/1nlrKYolQN
— SkyNews (@SkyNews) August 5, 2020
To contribute online to Beirut relief efforts, check out the Lebanese Red Cross and Impact Lebanon on Just Giving. This report was first published on Cosmic Log.
GeekWire’s coverage this week is underwritten by BCRA
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To monitor wildfire activity, Cole Lindsay, an Oregon Department of Forestry multi-mission aircraft operator, views images using data from a short-wave infrared camera. (Kate Kaye Photos) Cole Lindsay was nearly 20 nautical miles in the air Thursday morning above Oregon’s Silver Falls National Park as the massive Beachie Creek Fire burned. Maneuvering a contraption that looked like a tricked-out Microsoft Xbox controller, Lindsay zoomed a camera in on spots along the west edge of the fire ledge. The fire had shape-shifted and smoldered since Wednesday, burning less intensely in some areas.
FLIR’s Star SAFIRE 380HD thermal image camera attached on a plane used by the Oregon Department of Forestry.
An image captured by the BlackSky Global-4 satellite shows the site of the Beirut chemical explosion at 8:22 a.m. local time Aug. 5. Image resolution is about 1 meter (3 feet) per pixel. (BlackSky Global Monitoring Photo)