Help from orbit

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The internet company Google wants to help fight forest fires.

(Bild: stock.adobe.com/BENEDETTA BARBANTI)

New aid for fire departments: With the launch of the first of a total of 50 FireSat satellites, the tech company Google announced the start of its early warning system for fighting forest fires on Monday.

According to Google, the AI-supported satellite constellation is intended to help detect forest fires at an early stage and thus contain them more quickly. Among other things, high-resolution images are to be delivered every 20 minutes.

The increasing intensity and frequency of forest fires is a growing challenge worldwide. In this context, Google recalled the almost 900,000 hectares of burnt area in southern Europe alone in 2023. Many of the current early warning systems are based on satellite images, which are usually only available in low resolution or with a long delay.

Prediction of fire progression hoped for
The FireSat satellite constellation, on the other hand, detects fires as small as five by five meters and provides high-resolution images every 20 minutes to enable an early response. In addition, historical fire data should enable more precise modeling and prediction of fire progression.

FireSat was developed by Google Research in collaboration with Muon Space, the Earth Fire Alliance, the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation and the Environmental Defense Fund. Google.org is supporting the project with 13 million dollars as part of the "AI Collaboratives for Wildfires" initiative, which uses AI specifically to combat environmental disasters.