Google has pledged to give $13 million to Earth Fire Alliance, a nonprofit, which seeks to launch 50 small satellites in low-Earth orbit to detect flare-ups as small as a classroom anywhere in the world.
The FireSat constellation, managed by EFA, will be the first satellite fleet dedicated to detecting and tracking wildfires.
"Once launched, FireSat will provide near real-time information about the location, size and intensity of early-stage wildfires so firefighters and emergency responders can respond quickly and effectively," Google said in a statement on Monday.
The first of these satellites is scheduled to be launched in 2025, with the entire constellation to go up in space by 2026.
"Today's announcement marks a significant milestone and step towards transforming the way we interact with fire," Earth Fire Alliance said in a statement. "As fires become more intense, and spread faster, we believe radical collaboration is key to driving much needed innovation in fire management and climate action."
The satellites, to be built by Muon Space, a California-based satellite manufacturing startup, will each have six-band multispectral infrared instruments, keeping an eye on a swath of Earth spanning some 900 miles, or 1,500 kilometres.
The satellites will have the sensitivity to find wildfires as small as 16X16 feet (5X5 metres).
Google will use its AI to compare observations and will also take into account factors like local infrastructure and weather in each fire assessment.
The Environmental Defense Fund, the Moore Foundation, and the Minderoo Foundation are the other backers of the FireSat programme.
"At full capability with 50+ satellites, the revisit times for most of the globe improve to 20 minutes, with the most wildfire-prone regions benefitting from sampling intervals as short as nine minutes," Muon Space said in a statement.
NASA also operates a fire-detection system using satellite observations, but none offer the sensitivity, resolution, or response time of FireSat.
Image Source: Unsplash
Commenti