Space has become more accessible than ever thanks to the proliferation of small satellites and more affordable launch prices, opening the door to niche applications such as global pollution monitoring, crop observation, and new ways to collect weather and climate data.
Now you can add wildfire detection to that list. Satellites have observed wildfires from space for decades, but a new initiative funded in part by Google's philanthropic arm aims to deploy more than 50 small satellites into low Earth orbit to detect fires as small as orbit anywhere in the world.
The FireSat constellation, managed by a nonprofit called the Earth Fire Alliance (EFA), will be the first satellite fleet dedicated to detecting and tracking wildfires. Google on Monday announced a new $13 million investment in the FireSat constellation, building on the tech giant's previous contribution to support the development of custom infrared sensors for the FireSat satellites.
Google's funding commitment will maintain the launch schedule for the first FireSat Pathfinder satellite next year, EFA said. The first batch of satellites to form the operational constellation could launch in 2026.
“Today's announcement is an important milestone and a step toward transforming the way we tackle fire,” the Earth Fire Alliance said in a statement. “As fires become more intense and spread faster, we believe revolutionary collaboration is critical to advancing much-needed innovation in fire management and climate action.”
A new use case
The FireSat satellites will be built by Muon Space, a California-based satellite manufacturing startup. Each microsatellite built by Muon Space will carry a six-band multispectral infrared instrument that will monitor an area of Earth about 900 miles (1,500 kilometers) wide to detect wildfire hotspots.
The satellites will have the sensitivity to spot wildfires as small as 16 by 16 feet (5 by 5 meters). According to Google, the network will use Google AI to compare observations of any area of this size to previous images to determine whether a fire has occurred. The AI will also take into account factors such as nearby infrastructure and local weather in assessing each fire.
Google said it has validated its detection model for small fires and established a baseline dataset for the AI by flying the sensor over controlled burns. FireSat's partners announced the constellation in May after five years of development. The Environmental Defense Fund, the Moore Foundation and the Minderoo Foundation also support the FireSat program.
Once a wildfire is detected, it's critical for FireSat to immediately transmit the fire's location and size to emergency responders. With the first three satellites, the FireSat constellation will observe every point on Earth at least twice daily. “With more than 50 satellites at full capacity, revisit times improve to 20 minutes for most of the world, with the most wildfire-prone areas benefiting from intervals as short as nine minutes,” Muon Space said in a statement.
Muon space
NASA operates a fire-detection system using satellite observations from the agency's Earth-observation missions, but none offers the sensitivity, resolution or response time of FireSat. More than 200 commercial Earth-imaging satellites owned by Planet provide fresh views of nearly all of Earth's land surface daily. These satellites can also detect wildfires, but the field of view of the imagers on Planet's spacecraft is narrower than the area imaged by FireSat.
The FireSat group's list of nonprofit and philanthropic supporters resembles the group of foundations funding MethaneSat, which was launched earlier this year. MethaneSat, as its name suggests, is monitoring methane emissions from space, and the project was funded primarily by private contributions. Google is also a partner in MethaneSat, where it is integrating AI technology into data analysis, and making the data accessible with Google Earth.
All of this is made possible by the low barriers to entry into spaceflight for small businesses, research institutions, and philanthropic efforts. There is more private investment in satellite manufacturing companies than in any other sector of the space market, including launch. The proliferation of satellite manufacturers has made it more affordable to buy a spacecraft or fleet of satellites.
And putting the satellite into orbit is cheap. SpaceX charges about $1 million to launch a 366-pound (166-kilogram) payload on a Falcon 9 rocket on one of its transporter rideshare missions, far less than any other launch company. MethaneSat was launched on a transporter rideshare mission earlier this year, and although officials haven't announced a launch provider for FireSat, SpaceX is hard to beat.