Scott Howe, a pilot at NASA's Armstrong Flight Research Center in California, assisted with monitoring California's wildfires by operating a MQ-9 remotely piloted aircraft during launches and recoveries for the California Air National Guard. The MQ-9 closely resembles the Ikhana aircraft, which Howe had piloted at Armstrong.

An ER-2 based at NASA's Armstrong Flight Research Center in California flew a mission over the state's wildfires Aug. 9 to validate instruments and to collect information to help U.S. Forest Service officials plan for recovery.

The long wings of General Atomics Altair UAV are in evidence during a series of environmental monitoring missions for NOAA and NASA in the spring of 2005.

An ocean color senor, a passive microwave vertical sounder and an electro-optical sensor were mounted on the Altair UAV for the NOAA-NASA flight demonstration.

A pilot for General Atomics guides the Altair remotely operated aircraft from a ground control station using both visual and telemetered data.

A satellite antenna, electro-optical/infrared and ocean color sensors (front) were among payloads installed on the Altair for the NOAA-NASA flight demonstration

Terrence Hertz, Deputy Associate Administrator for Technology, NASA Aeronautics Research Mission Directorate, at the NOAA/NASA Altair flight demo kickoff.

Equipped with a pod-mounted infrared imaging sensor, the Altair UAS aided fire mapping efforts over wildfires in central and southern California in late 2006.

A high-tech infrared imaging sensor in its underbelly pod, the Altair UAS flew repeated passes over the Esperanza fire to aid firefighting efforts.