LOS ANGELES – Following the outbreak of recent wildfires in California, Google announced that it can invest $13 million next 12 months to enhance satellite imaging to assist track and detect wildfires.
FireSat, a constellation of greater than 50 satellites, will have the opportunity to detect wildfires the dimensions of a classroom (about 5 by 5 meters). The first satellite can be launched in early 2025. The media giant announced on MondayFire authorities currently depend on satellite imagery to detect wildfires, but only once they are in regards to the size of a football field or multiple hectare.
“We realized that combining satellites with machine learning and artificial intelligence provides the perfect platform to generate real-time operational information on fires,” said Christopher Van Arsdale, head of the Google Research Climate & Energy Group and chair of the Earth Fire Alliance, in a video announcement.
The initiative is led by the Earth Fire Alliance, a non-profit organization founded in May to develop FireSat and create wildfire data sets. The initiative is funded by Google and the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation.
In satellite images, clouds or smokestacks could currently be mistaken for fires, Van Arsdale said. Using machine learning, a team at Google built a camera that optimized the technology for fire detection, and the team tested it over controlled fire areas.
The satellite constellation will have the opportunity to supply firefighters with updated satellite images every 20 minutes, helping to extinguish fires before they turn into large and devastating.
Authorities in California have already begun using AI to raised track wildfires. The California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection has partnered with UC San Diego to Development of a brand new AI pilot project with 1,039 high-resolution cameras on towers and mountaintops across the state to search for smoke and other anomalies and alert Cal Fire.
Jason Forthhofer, a mechanical engineer with the U.S. Forest Service, said the FireSat project may even help collect data to raised train firefighters to cope with wildfires and understand how they’re affected by changing conditions.
“We will be able to teach firefighters the impact that drought, wind or a change in fuel can have on a fire. Because we have seen so many firefighters die in fires because they did not anticipate the consequences of the fire,” he said.
Southern California is currently experiencing an especially energetic wildfire season. three fast-spreading fires burning greater than 40,000 hectares of land Thousands needed to be evacuated and dozens of buildings were destroyed.
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