A New FireSat Satellite Network For Early Wildfire Detection
FireSat Satellite
Globally, temperatures are rising and growing drier, which is contributing to an increase in wildfire frequency. Firefighters now have to rely on low-resolution or infrequently updated satellite imagery, which makes it challenging to identify flames before they’ve spread to the size of a soccer field.
Google Research and prominent members of the fire community have collaborated to develop FireSat, a constellation of satellites intended to identify and monitor wildfires as small as a classroom (about 5×5 meters). Authorities will be able to respond to flames before they cause damage with the help of FireSat, which provides high-resolution images that is updated globally every 20 minutes.
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With additional backing from the Moore Foundation, the Earth Fire Alliance, a charity created to launch the FireSat constellation, led the initiative that received $13 million in financing from Google.org to get this work underway.
Growing megafires are a global crisis
Wildfires are changing rapidly, while being part of they biosphere. Decades of efficient suppression have created fuel conditions for catastrophic megafires that burn hotter, spread quicker, and threaten more towns.
Disaster wildfires are threatening every biome on Earth, including tropical rainforest, tundra, and permafrost, destroying landscapes on every continent except Antarctica. This global catastrophe requires radical cooperation.
INTRODUCING
Earth Fire Alliance
Earth Fire Alliance, a 501c3 founded in 2024, provides global fire statistics. Fast action and bold collaboration help us reimagine relationship with fire as environmental stewards. These are work principles:
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Purpose
Earth Fire Alliance believes that global access to high-fidelity data will change humanity’s approach to fire.
Mission
Comprehensively monitor all global fires.
Provide accurate, timely information to communities worldwide.
Inform climate resilience measures to protect ecosystems and biodiversity.
Vision
Earth Fire Alliance thinks a data-driven global wildfire response will shift focus and funding from reactive suppression to proactive stewardship, including adaptation and beneficial fire practices.
Technology driven by users
FireSat was designed as a wildfire community tool
FireSat is a unique satellite network focusing on fire, fire conditions, and fire’s ecological effects. FireSat satisfies needs after 200 meetings with frontline chiefs and incident commanders. Google technology goes beyond improving what’s out and up there. The first strategic data tool designed to enable transformation.
Resolution in meters Live revelations
This wildfire-focused system will show every fire on Earth consistently, accurately, and completely. The transformation from a century-old suppression paradigm to a helpful fire model without endangering populations will begin with FireSat‘s near-real-time data within minutes of observation.
Satellite Wildfire Detection
A group of satellites with improved frequency detection capabilities for smaller wildfires
In collaboration with Muon Space and the Environmental Defense Fund, the Google Research team developed specialized infrared sensors for the satellite wildfire detection that were better able to identify small-scale flames, which allowed for this advance in wildfire identification. FireSat uses artificial intelligence (AI) to quickly detect whether there is a fire by comparing any 5 x 5 meter area on Earth with historical imagery and including other variables like the local weather and adjacent infrastructure.
They flew the sensors over controlled burns to validate detection algorithm for minor flames and to create a baseline dataset for the AI. Muon Space then intends to launch the first satellite in early 2025, and the remaining satellites will be launched over the next few years.
FireSat will provide almost real-time information about the location, size, and intensity of early wildfires, helping firefighters act quickly. Google and scientists can better understand wildfire behavior and spread thanks to FireSat‘s worldwide fire spread record, which will also improve emergency response operations. This will broaden google current fire simulation research in collaboration with US Forest Service scientists.
The frequency and severity of wildfires are increasing globally, particularly in light of rising global temperatures. Numerous towns are affected by them because individuals are forced to flee their houses or suffer injuries just from being close to the fire and smoke.
Google Research is using AI/ML to better comprehend Earth’s physical processes and respond to natural disasters like wildfires. Research teams are collaborating with wildfire experts to advance various projects and activities utilizing various methods.
Wildfire Detection Map
Detecting and tracking wildfires using satellite imagery and machine learning, disseminating information via wildfire detection maps and searches, alerting impacted areas and assisting fire authorities in their response, and creating a simulator to produce data in various wildfire situations are a few of these initiatives. Find out more about work with FireSat, FireSim, FireBench, and wildfire boundary tracking.
All of this is a part of Google’s larger initiative to employ AI to help people get reliable information at crucial times, confront the growing threat of climate change, and improve lives worldwide.
Google dedication to studying wildfires
The most recent initiative in Google Research’s continuous efforts to assist local communities worldwide in mitigating the effects of climate change is this one. Since 2020, we’ve employed AI models to surface alerts and features such as wildfire boundary tracking, which is already accessible in more than 20 countries that give individuals who are close to a wildfire useful information.Google is published FireBench, an open-source machine learning benchmark dataset for wildfire research, earlier this year.
As strive to increase the detection of wildfires, data and AI are crucial in giving emergency responders vital information and creating new avenues for scientific inquiry. We’ll keep working together with the fire community despite the increased danger of wildfires.
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