How AI and satellites help fight wildfires

Wildfires are becoming increasingly common worldwide due to heat waves and droughts, often starting from minor incidents like discarded cigarettes or sparks from campfires. Detecting small fires quickly is crucial to prevent their escalation, but this can be challenging in remote areas. Satellites can aid in early detection, but their data needs to be processed and analyzed effectively.

OroraTech, a Munich-based startup, has developed a business model leveraging satellite data, artificial intelligence (AI), and efficient satellite systems to provide rapid wildfire detection. Their satellite network, equipped with thermal infrared sensors, can detect fires at night and through smoke, even in dense cloud cover. Miniaturized cameras in their satellites make them cost-effective and energy-efficient.

OroraTech's AI analyzes data from their satellites and those of other agencies like NASA and ESA, delivering actionable information to customers worldwide, including government agencies, fire departments, and forestry companies, within minutes. The company operates more thermal imaging satellites than any other entity, aiming to scan the Earth with daily scans by 2028.

OroraTech's Wildfire Solution platform has even been implemented in Greece, providing real-time wildfire detection data to Greek authorities. The company's technology has potential applications beyond wildfire detection, such as monitoring water evaporation for agriculture, identifying heat islands in urban areas, detecting oil spills at sea, and aiding the defense sector.

Grübler envisions a future where the technology's applications extend beyond the current wildfire detection focus, with unknown uses emerging in the next five years.