BlueSky has been created by a close collaboration of land management and air quality regulator users with scientific researchers. BlueSky is governed by the BlueSky Consortium with the USDA Forest Service AirFire Team taking the lead responsibility for scientific development.

BlueSky output products are being created by regional Fire Consortium for the Advanced Modeling of Meteorology and Smoke (FCAMMS), and the National Weather Service uses BlueSky based smoke emissions in their smoke forecast product.

BlueSky is an open source modeling platform that can utilize many different model choices at each step. Currently, most BlueSky implementations utilize the FCCS fuel loading map and Emissions Production Model (EPM) created by the US Forest Service's Fire and Environmental Research Applications (FERA) Team, as well as the CALPUFF puff-disperson model. However the National Weather Service uses BlueSky with their HYSPLIT dispersion model. BlueSky's main use to date is in modeling fine scale (less than 2.5 micron) particulate matter. PM2.5 as it is known, is a regulated air pollutant under the National Ambient Air Quality Standards.

BlueSky can use a variety of fire information sources, but has also led to development of the BlueSky SMARTFIRE fire information system. SMARTFIRE uses NOAA Hazard Mapping System satellite fire detects along with ground reports from systems such as the ICS-209 reports to create a reconciled fire information data feed. SMARTFIRE has been developed by the USDA AirFire Team along with Sonoma Technology, Inc. under a grant from NASA.