When iFireNet, an NSF-funded research consortium led by UC Irvine, gathered in Trinity County earlier this month, the mission stretched well beyond a routine prescribed burn. Yes — crews were out to eliminate yellow starthistle, an invasive Mediterranean weed choking local grasslands — but around the fire line there was also a weather monitoring network aimed at understanding how flames reshape the atmosphere.

GreenSight — represented by Matt Cann and Maria Kloiber — joined teams from UC Irvine, UC Davis, the US Forest Service, Lawrence Livermore National Lab, Imperial College London, and others for several fast‑paced field days:

• June 9 – Test Fire & Pre‑burn Mapping
  Calibration flights, a team of International scientists established perimeter weather‑stations, and LiDAR scans to benchmark fuels at the site.
  
• June 10 – Full Burn
  A one‑hour, head‑high grassfire designed to deplete the starthistle seed bank while reducing fuel loads around nearby homes. GreenSight conducted data collection flights pre-burn, during the burn, and post-burn.

Why This Burn Mattered

1. Ecological Reset
   Burning after starthistle bolts—but before seed heads form—helps native grasses reclaim space without spreading the invader.
   
2. Community Resilience
   By trimming fine fuels, the project carves fire‑safe buffers around Hyampom and Hayfork, reducing the risk of uncontrolled wildfires.
   
3. Science in the Smoke
   iFireNet’s weather sensors, and drone fleets stitched together a real‑time picture of fire‑atmosphere feedbacks—data sorely needed to sharpen next‑gen fire‑behavior models.

GreenSight’s Role: WeatherHive in the Plume

Our WeatherHive platform—a small swarm of autonomous nano-sized drones capable of sensing atmospheric conditions—flew six automated “lawn‑mower” patterns at 20 m AGL before, during, and after ignition, with an extra manual flight by drone engineer Maria Kloiber to capture late‑burn dynamics.

We collected data including high‑resolution temperature, relative humidity, and wind data inside the smoke plumes—data other sensors can’t access. The iFireNet team was very excited about our platform and invited us to collaborate on more burns in the future.

What We Saw

Red X’s on the flight path mark plume intercepts; onboard thermometers logged the hot spots in real time. Meanwhile, surface stations recorded how those low‑level wind shifts fanned or choked the flames—perfect fodder for coupled fire‑weather models.

What Happens Next

Data Workshop @ UC Irvine – iFireNet will host a deep‑dive session in a few months; GreenSight will travel to share WeatherHive datasets and lessons learned, and to begin collaborating on potential papers to report our collective findings.

More Burns – The first of many! Future burns may include prescribed burns under forest canopy and large brush fires.

Why It Matters for Tech & Wildfire Communities

• Robotics & Autonomy – Demonstrates repeatable, hands‑off flight plans that can adapt to dynamic fire environments.
  
• Sensor Fusion – Merges drone profiles with fixed towers, and LiDAR for a 3‑D, time‑synced dataset.
  
• Model Validation – Supplies high‑frequency, near‑plume measurements to verify microscale fire‑weather simulations—critical for next‑gen forecasting tools.
  

When drones, sensors, and prescribed‑fire expertise meet in the field, we get more than scorched weeds—we get actionable insights that make future burns safer and wildlands healthier. GreenSight is proud to be part of that effort, and we’re already gearing up for the next ignition.

Stay tuned for workshop highlights and open data releases later this summer.