Jay Clemens
Insitu has flown a ScanEagle unmanned aircraft in the Pacific Northwest region to monitor the Olympic National Park wildfire.
Fire officials used Insitu’s motion imagery software to determine the fire’s perimeter and assess water drop locations as part of that demonstration, Insitu said Tuesday.
“This and other planned unmanned aircraft systems demonstrations will serve to guide our policies, procedures and requirements for the safe, phased integration of UAS in support of wildfire management,” said Mark Bathrick, director of the Interior Department‘s aviation services office.
“These demonstrations are part of a larger interagency strategy aimed at employing UAS to provide firefighters on the ground with time-sensitive information that will give them the highest level of situational awareness and support possible.”
Incident command personnel received a 37-hour real-time infrared video collected from six flights.
The Federal Aviation Administration gave the Interior Department an emergency certificate of authorization to fly the ScanEagle within an area under a temporary flight restriction.
