Posted on behalf of Amber Dance

California is battling its more than 300 wildfires with a little help from NASA.

Ikhana, NASA’s $20 million remote-controlled plane, is touring the fires from above to collect temperature data. The plane’s autonomous modular sensor works like a digital camera with filters to pick up visible light as well as thermal signals. It can detect temperatures from ½ to 1,000 degrees Fahrenheit.

The plane transmits data to scientists at NASA’s Ames Research Center in Silicon Valley, who overlay temperature information on maps from Google Earth and Microsoft Virtual Earth. The data reaches firefighting coordinates in minutes.

This image shows a portion of Monterey county last Tuesday afternoon; the yellow spots are fires, with red and purple showing burned areas. See more fire images from Ikhana and satellites at NASA. Another flight is scheduled for today [Tuesday].

California governor Arnold Schwarzenegger called the plane a “superstar,” “one of the most exciting new weapons in our firefighting arsenal.” (San Francisco Chronicle). Last week the drone identified a hotspot headed straight for the northern California town of Paradise, and that information allowed firefighters to head off the blaze and save the town.

Image: NASA/Google