It’s that time of year on Fort Stewart when smoke billows through the pine trees.

That smoke, the result of the installation’s renowned prescribed burn program is even catching the attention of NASA researchers.

NASA’s FireSense Project is on the ground in Fort Stewart’s vast woods and in its skies, measuring and recording data its researchers hope to use elsewhere.

This is NASA’s first visit to Fort Stewart for prescribed burns, said Nick Seanor, Fort Stewart forestry’s fire management supervisor. Three NASA planes are flying overhead with different sensors measuring a number of different things.

“This project is great,” he said. “The products they are developing out of this are only going to help us. Smoke management is going to be crucial going into the future. They are going to develop tools out of this that are going to help us.”

NASA scientists are taking a close look at fire and its impacts through their FireSense program.

“Fire is a mobile disturbance,” said Jacquelyn Shuman, NASA FireSense project scientist. “It impacts all parts of the earth’s system. Fire impacts the weather locally. We’re looking at all parts of a fire.”

Fort Stewart’s successful prescribed burn program was a draw for NASA.

“It’s a really great place to come out and test our instruments in an area where we know they’re going to have a prescribed fire, tell us when it’s happening and where it’s happening so we can coordinate all of these teams,” Shuman said.

NASA actually does most of its own research on Earth, Shuman said, and being on the ground at Fort Stewart allows them to “know what we don’t know,” she said.

“We can help fire fighters be safer, we can help people be safer,” Shuman said.

Shuman said Wednesday’s data collection was successful and they were getting feedback in real time.

“With prescribed burning, practice makes perfect,” she said. “Getting out there and understanding the conditions and understanding when you need to put fire on a landscape is an essential component of that.”

Shuman said the feedback the scientists are getting from Fort Stewart’s prescribed burns can help with fires all over the country.

“The information we get here is essential to all of us,” she said. “It helps us think about how to help other localities.”

Fort Stewart frequently burns across its installation, and where and when those fires are set have a purpose.

“We have a number of objectives, a number of reasons for doing it,” Seanor said.

Chief among the reasons is to keep the military training mission going, and wildfire mitigation is part of that, Seanor said.

“By removing dangerous fuel loads, it keeps wildfire potential down,” he said. “It keeps our wildfires in check.”

And if there is a wildfire, it won’t be as large, without the underbrush as fuel. The prescribed burns also help maintain wildlife habitat on the post’s vast acreage. Grass will regrow in a burned area within days, Seanor said, and wildlife will return.

“The short-term inconvenience is outweighed by the long-term benefit,” he said.

Just west of Highway 119, Fort Stewart’s Directorate of Public Works Forestry branch set more than 700 acres ablaze. The fires aren’t strong enough to burn up the thousands of pine trees, which the post cuts and sells. The forestry staff and the dozens of others on hand to learn and help got the kind of weather they look for when doing prescribed burns — clear, sunny, a good temperature and just the right relative humidity.

A little wind doesn’t hurt, either — the wind helps disperse the columns of smoke rising from the burning vegetation.

The fires are started in a large area in a pinpoint fashion. Ping pong-sized balls that burst into flames are dropped from a helicopter just above tree top height. Pickups with what are called terra torches shoot a flammable liquid that burns the perimeters and others walk into the forest with drip torches, placing fire in spots that had not been touched otherwise.

Burn season runs from December 1 through June 30 and this year, the post forestry operations are scheduled to burn about 115,000 acres. Prescribed fires are done on threeyear rotations across the 279,000 acres.

Additionally, the forestry management program maintains 800 miles of roads and trails. While 29% of the prescribed burn acres under the U.S. Army’s Installation Management Command happen at Fort Stewart, it is also home to 24% of its forest products revenue.

“That helps sustain our program,” Seanor said.