When you buy through affiliate links in our content, we may earn a commission at no extra cost to you. Learn 
Google Research’s FireSat satellite constellation will provide near real-time information about the location, intensity, and size of global wildfires.
Catching wildfires in their early stages could help emergency responders and firefighters to respond quickly and contain fires before they burn out of control.
The high-resolution imagery provided by FireSat updates every 20 minutes globally and can detect and track wildfires as small as an average classroom, or around 5 x 5 meters.
FireSat compares these spots with previously captured imagery and takes into account factors such as local weather and surrounding infrastructure to detect fires.
The initiative, spearheaded by nonprofit the Earth Fire Alliance with support from the Moore Foundation, received $13 million in funding from Google.
Infrared Sensors Can Spot Smaller Fires
The team from Google Research also assisted in the development of specialist infrared sensors for the satellites, in partnership with the Environmental Defense Fund and Muon Space. These sensors are designed to better detect small-scale fires.
The sensors were flown over controlled burns to determine a baseline dataset for the AI.
Google plans to use captured data to create a global historical record of wildfire spread. It will also help scientists better understand how wildfire behaves and spreads.
This isn’t Google Research’s first foray into tackling wildfires brought about by climate change. The tech giant rolled out AI models in 2020 to provide alerts with information to anyone near a wildfire through wildfire boundary tracking, available in over 20 countries. Earlier this year, it released FireBench, an open-source MK benchmark dataset for wildfire research.
With wildfires predicted to grow by 50% by 2100, early detection and containment of them is vital if authorities are to have a hope of tackling the problem.
