WILDFIRE AERIAL FIGHTING SYSTEM UTILIZING LIDAR

摘要

A display provides optimized situational awareness to firefighting command personnel within a wildfire theatre. Lidar scanning data provides a digital elevation map of the wildfire theatre for the display. Geographic features such as lakes, roads, power lines and structures can be overlaid on the display. Lidar data utilizing multiple reflection signatures can be interpreted to represent fuel density and/or canopy height and such information can also be included upon the display. A burn area and active fire edge can be sensed by infrared scanner data and overlaid upon the display. The display can be utilized for input of firefighting command instructions, such as in the form of vectors or other annotations placed upon the display and correlated with airborne firefighting resources to be dropped at designated locations. Data provided to the display can be periodically updated to reflect the current situation. Firefighting resources are thus most effectively assigned.