Tracking forest fires from space
Student researcher pieces together satellite data to help communities monitor wildfires
Morgan Crowley鈥檚 interest in sustainability took root early.
As a schoolchild in New Hampshire, she went to summer camp on Pine Mountain 鈥� so named for the stately evergreens that used to blanket the site. By the time Morgan started going there, 鈥渢here were only two pines left鈥� because the rest had fallen victim to a forest fire or to logging. As a result, 鈥淚 grew up thinking very much about ecological sustainability.鈥�
Crowley鈥檚 curiosity about the environment was also fed by a fascination with aerial imagery. Her grandfather was a U.S. Air Force pilot, so the family had 鈥渁erial photographs all over our house.鈥� During an eighth grade field trip to Washington, D.C., she got her first look at Google Earth 鈥� and immediately searched for her own home in southern New Hampshire, near the Atlantic coast. The bird鈥檚 eye view of the area 鈥済ave me a new perspective.鈥�
Now, as a PhD candidate in Natural Resource Sciences at 黑料不打烊, Crowley has found a way to combine her passions for natural landscapes and aerial imagery. She has developed a new technique to rapidly map wildfires from space by piecing together freely available satellite data. Her goal: to create a global dashboard that will help people in timber-dependent regions track wildfires that threaten their lands.