THERMAL INFRARED PROGRAM

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THERMAL INFRARED PROGRAM HELICOPTER
PLATFORMS Alberta Perspective
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Outline

• Introduction
• Why we use IR
• Statistics 1998 - 2005
• Present concerns effecting IR use
• Completed to date
• Future Standards

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Background

• 1982 with Forest Service
• Over 2200 hours as an IR operator 1982 1989
• Level I certification - 2005 - FLIR
• Variety of helicopter platforms
• B206, B204, B205, B212, H500
• 3 main IR cameras
• AGA 750, AGEMA 782, AGA 110
• Multiple Search /Rescue missions with RCMP
• Team Lead
• 2001 2004 Provincial Fire Mapping Program
  Coordinator
• 2005 1/2 present Provincial IR Program
  Coordinator

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Alberta Forest Protection, a Branch of Alberta
Sustainable Resource Development Responsibility
..
To protect Albertas forests and forest
communities by preventing and suppressing forest
fires
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Why Do We Use IR

• ADM believes in the IR program and its fiscal
  use
• Aids in Mop-up operations
• Maximizes the effective and efficient use of our
  ground crews
• Helps to determine areas of little or no fire
  activity
• CAUTION!!!!!
• Tool to determine fire status
• OC, BH, UC, EX
• Aids in the determination of hotspots, burning
  areas, and fire perimeter

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Definitions
Hotspot
Area of remnant heat gt 300 degrees C. and 25 cm
in size
Burning Area
Extensive areas of active burning
Fire Perimeter
Maximum extent of fire destroyed vegetation
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EXAMPLES
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Statistics1998 - 2005

• 29 helicopter companies
• 16 different helicopter platforms
• Spent 4,851,149.00
• Utilized 5583 hours helicopter time
• Utilized 3892 hours of IR operator time

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Helicopter Versus IR Operator Costs
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(No Transcript)
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Present Concerns Effecting IR Use

• No justification on usage - We just use it
• Misconceptions
• Weather plays an important role
• How long after raining do we wait before
  scanning?
• Does rain or snow interfere with effective
  operations?

At least 2 days
Drives heat down
It attenuates IR signal
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Present Concerns Effecting IR Use

• Misconceptions Cont
• Time of scan is important
• When is the best time to scan?
• What effect does a sunny day have on the
  detection capabilities?
• How far underground can I detect heat?

Works best during night operations or early
mornings/late evenings
Creates false positives
1/32 inch
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Present Concerns Effecting IR Use

• Solar Reflectance
• And
• Water Vapour
• Can be your worst enemies

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Present Concerns Effecting IR Use

• Variety of IR equipment
• Type III gimbel mount ( gt 100,000)
• Handheld (lt100,000)
• Inconsistent end products
• Can your IR equipment give us the end products we
  want?

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Present Concerns Effecting IR Use

• Lag time of IR mission results to IC, SITL or GIS
  team
• No accountability to the team
• Varied delivery times

Right after landing

• Delivery times sometimes 2 hr late
• Breakfast more important

• Never
• Nothing to report

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Present Concerns Effecting IR Use

• Delivery formats varied
• Flagged nails
• Toilet paper
• Hand drawn maps with hotspots delineated
• Post-it notes
• Numbers transposed wrong
• Lost post-it notes
• Cigarette packages
• GPS coordinates in different formats
• DD this what is needed
• DM helicopter operations
• DMS- mapping
• Thumb drives sometimes

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Present Concerns Effecting IR Use

• IR experience
• IR operators experience varied
• None to lots
• Pilot and IR operators out on their own
• ICS team member not present
• Misunderstanding of how operation worked
• Pilot felt it was important to see hotspots also

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Present Concerns Effecting IR Use

• Time of hire
• Expectations not conveyed

• Time of release
• Exit evaluations not done

IR providers require honest feedback on
performance
Upcoming companies are asking for direction
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CompletedtoDate
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Completed to Date
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CompletedtoDate
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Future StandardsSensitivity/File Format/Accuracy

• Ability to detect hotspot targets gt 25sq cm in
  size
• Ability to provide digital GPS shapefiles of
  hotspots and flight course taken by helicopter
• The coordinates of targets within a spatial
  accuracy of 10 meters

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Future StandardsFormat of Delivered Data

• Shapefile
• Geographic(lat-long) or degree decimal degrees
• NAD83 datum
• Include - .dbf, .shp, .shx, .prj files

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Future StandardsFormat of Delivered Data-cont

• Hardcopy maps 11x17
• Quicklook product of identified targets
• JPEG, BMP, PDF format
• Must STAND on its own
• Scale
• Title
• Author
• North arrow
• Date

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Crumb Trail as Evidence of Assessment Coverage
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DESIRED PRODUCT

• - Black Perimeter Trace
• GPS Locations of Hotspots
• Tabular and digital data

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Future StandardsInformation Delivery

• Immediate delivery of shapefile data and maps
  upon landing
• To ground crews via drop tube or landing at camps
  via thumb drive
• Future
• Downlink capabilities of hotspots to sectors,
  camps, IC base
• Downlink to simple printer
• Real time downlink of IR images to IC base to aid
  planning section and IC in decision making

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PDA MOBILE MAPPING
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Future StandardsMission Plan

• Include
• Where scan took place
• Scan objectives
• Average height of flight AGL
• Start/stop times
• Type of scanner used
• Name of pilot and scanner operator
• Type and registration of helicopter
• Fire number / fire name
• Date of flight

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Example of THERMAL MISSION REPORT
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Future StandardsIR Standards for Providers

• Standardize training/certification for IR
  operators
• Need to understand the basics of infrared
• Known training companies
• FLIR - nancy.edwards_at_flir.com
• Snell infrared - gmcintosh_at_snellinfrared.com
• Minimum on-site training requirements
• 20 hours?
• Test IR companies over grid to promote
  consistency
• Must pass to use on fires

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Future StandardsPerformance Feedback

• Expectations conveyed
• At time of hire
• Daily
• Evaluation at time of release -
• Evaluations by designated ICS member
• PSC
• SITL
• IR Coordinator?

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Thankyou
Steve Simser, GIS/IR Specialist Wildfire Resource
Information Wildfire Aviation and
Geomatics Forest Protection Branch Forestry
Division 9th Floor, 9920 108 St. Edmonton,
Alberta T5K 2M4 1-780-427-6754 work 1-780-819-6754
cell steve.simser_at_ gov.ab.ca