Atmospheric Composition & Chemical Processes: Instruments

NightFOX (Nighttime Fire Observations eXperiment)

UAS
UAS, Black Swift Technologies
NightFOX measurement

NightFOX is a lightweight remote sensing payload designed to be mounted on a small fixed-wing unmanned aircraft system (UAS) for wildfire observations. Outfitted with infrared sensors and an onboard data system, NightFOX measures the extent and intensity of a fire from a safe altitude for a fraction of the expense of more sophisticated instruments flown on specialized aircraft. NightFOX was developed at the NOAA Chemical Sciences Laboratory (CSL) by Dr. Ru-Shan Gao, Dr. Troy Thornberry, Steve Ciciora, and other members of their team. Mission support is provided by a diverse team including CSL members and the UAS platform provider, Black Swift Technologies.

An instrument designed for a UAS observation platform is uniquely suited for remotely measuring wildfire. In-situ measurement is challenging due to intense heat in a large fire and lacks spatial extent. Remote observation with infrared satellite instrumentation is useful, but resolution is coarse compared to the size of intensely burning regions. Aircraft can carry large payloads of sophisticated observing instrumentation but are expensive, difficult to coordinate with incident command, and are not flown over fires at night. NightFOX (the Nighttime Fire Observations eXperiment) provides a low-cost and low-overhead option for high-resolution wildfire remote sensing that can fill observation gaps, particularly at night when fires burn at lower intensity.

Instruments on the NightFOX payload include custom-built narrow-band 4 micron scanning telescopes, a custom-built wide-angle 1.6 micron imager, a laser rangefinder, and a dual visible/IR (infrared) imager. At the design altitude of 1 km, NightFOX measures fire extent and intensity at sub-20 meter resolution.

NightFOX remote sensing instrument package
Remote Sensing instrument payload
instrument package schematic
Remote Sensing Instrument Package for fire extent (perimeter) and spatially resolved fire radiative power (FRP)
Remote Sensing Instrument Package Measurements
VisibleFLIR Duo R, 90° x 51° FOV, 1920 x 1080 pixels
Near-IRCustom camera, 23° x 23° FOV, 1-1.7 µm, 64 x 64 pixels
Near-IRCustom scanning scope, 1° FOV, 1.6 µm (matching the VIIRS band), ±30° scan across the flight track
Mid-IRCustom scanning scope, 1° FOV, 4 &mucro;m (matching the MODIS band), ±30° scan across the flight track
ThermalFLIR Duo R, 57° x 44° FOV, 7.5-13.5 µm, 160 x 120 pixels
instrument package schematic
Custom In-Situ Instrument Package for modified combustion efficiency (MCE) and aerosol loading with 1-s time resolution (at 18 m/s)
In-Situ Instrument Package Measurements
CO2NDIR absorption at 4.2 µm (with pre-drying of the sample air)
Accuracy: < 10%, precision: < 10 ppm, time resolution: 1 s
COAlphaSense CO
Fine-mode aerosolPortable Optical Particle Spectrometer (POPS) with optional 10:1 sample dilution.
Single particle sizing, range: 0.14 - 2.5 µm diameter
Coarse-mode aerosolAlphaSense OPC-N2
Single particle sizing, range: 1 - 10 µm diameter
Aerosol filter samplerpossible addition to allow for off-line analysis of aerosol composition
Other Measurements
RH (relative humidity), P (pressure), T (temperature), WindsBlack Swift Technologies multi-hole probe
GPS/INS (global positioning system / inertial navigation system)VectorNav Technologies
S2 UAS
  • Single element scanning sensors have a 1-2° field of view
  • GPS/INS used for aircraft altitude correction

Thornberry, T., R.-S. Gao, S. Ciciora, L. Watts, R. McLaughlin, A. Leonardi, K.H. Rosenlof, B. Argrow, J. Elston, M. Stachura, J. Fromm, A. Brewer, P. Schroeder, and M. Zucker, A lightweight remote sensing payload for wildfire detection and fire radiative power measurements, Sensors, doi:10.3390/s23073514, 2023.