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Google backs privately funded satellite constellation for wildfire detection

Google backs privately funded satellite constellation for wildfire detection

CALIFORNIA HOT SPRINGS, CA - SEPTEMBER 21: The Windy Fire blazes through the Long Meadow Grove of giant sequoia trees near The Trail of 100 Giants overnight in Sequoia National Forest on September 21, 2021 near California Hot Springs, California. As climate change and years of drought push wildfires to become bigger and hotter, many of the worlds biggest and oldest trees, the ancient sequoias, have been killed. The giant trees are among the worlds biggest and live to more than 3,000 years, surviving hundreds of wildfires throughout their lifespans. The heat of normal wildfire of the past helped the trees reproduce but increasing fire intensity can now kill them. A single wildfire, the Castle fire, destroyed as much as 14 percent of all the worlds giant sequoias in 2020. (Photo by David McNew/Getty Images)

Enlarge / The Windy Fire blazes through the Long Meadow Grove of giant sequoia trees near The Trail of 100 Giants overnight in Sequoia National Forest on September 21, 2021, near California Hot Springs, California. (credit: David McNew/Getty Images)

Space is more accessible than ever thanks to the proliferation of small satellites and more affordable launch prices, which opened the door to bespoke applications like global pollution monitoring, crop observations, and new ways of collecting weather and climate data.

Now you can add wildfire detection to the list. Satellites have observed wildfires from space for decades, but a new initiative partially funded by Google’s philanthropic arm aims to deploy more than 50 small satellites in low-Earth orbit to pinpoint flare-ups as small as a classroom anywhere in the world.

The FireSat constellation, managed by a nonprofit called Earth Fire Alliance (EFA), will be the first satellite fleet dedicated to detecting and tracking wildfires. Google announced a fresh investment of $13 million in the FireSat constellation Monday, building on the tech giant’s previous contributions to support the development of custom infrared sensors for the FireSat satellites.

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