This is an important update for the FireSat project, which is implemented by the organization Earth Fire Alliance (EFF) supported by Google and the Moore Foundation. The addition of specialized orbit visualization software greatly increases the practical value of the system for ground services.
How it will help the firefighters?
Until now, fire data has often been delayed or unreferenced, when to expect the next shot. The new software solves three critical tasks:
Accurate planning: Fire crews will now know the exact time (to the minute), when the FireSat constellation passes over a specific ignition source.
Waiting for fresh data: Field teams will be able to better plan the deployment of forces, knowing, that through 20 or 40 minutes they will receive an updated fire spread map with resolution 5 meters.
Coordination with other resources: This makes it possible to synchronize satellite data with the departures of firefighting aircraft (tanker planes) and the work of illegal immigrants.
FireSat, this is an ambitious constellation with more than 50 satellites, specially designed to detect small fires (the size of a car) in the early stages.
Tools: The satellites are equipped with infrared sensors with high sensitivity.
Update frequency: Once fully deployed, the system will be able to provide images of any point on the planet every time 20 minutes.
Although the Earth Fire Alliance is the customer, orbit visualization software solutions are often developed in partnership with such companies, like Moon Space (which build the satellites themselves) or through integration with Google Earth Engine.
FireSat is only able to detect fires by area 25 city2, which is much more efficient than the existing state meteorological satellites, which “see” fire only then, when it covers already significant territories.
Source: https://spacenews.com