Forest managers looking for a better view of wildfires are finding their answer at 70,000 feet.
That’s where the Forest Service plans to monitor fires with high-altitude balloons next year, on the heels of successful test runs in Idaho and other Western states.
Flying about twice as high as airplanes and loaded with high-tech cameras and communications equipment, the remote-controlled balloons give officials a more accurate picture of fires and help teams communicate better across rugged and isolated terrain.
“It was a very large team effort to get this done,” said Sean Triplett, branch leader for tools and technology at the National Interagency Fire Center in Boise, Idaho, which worked with NASA and Aerostar, an Arlington, Virginia, aerospace company, on balloon deployments this summer. The project is called the Strategic Tactical Radio and Tactical Overwatch, or STRATO.
