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Fire Spotting

A constellation of fire satellites will be a fabulous tool to protect us all.

SL Staff A

• 1 min read

Regular readers will have noticed we are fascinated by satellites and their application to climate change. On March 17, a new satellite, FireSat, was launched and successfully reached orbit.1 This satellite is the first prototype of a planned constellation of 50 or more satellites that will be able to more accurately and quickly detect fires.

When fully operational, this constellation will provide near real-time (20 min or less) updates on fires in support of fire crews.

FireSat will join several existing satellites — MODIS2 and VIIRS3 amongst others — that are doing fire detection today. Using various sensors, these satellites provide near global coverage every 1-2 days (MODIS) and every 12 hours (VIIRS). 

FireSat was launched by the Earth Fire Alliance, a nonprofit coalition dedicated to conserving the Earth’s ecosystems by providing fire-response communities with real-time fire information.4 The coalition pulled together several independent efforts, completed a feasibility study in 2022 led by the Environmental Defense Fund (EDF), leading to design work in 2023, and ultimately the Earth Fire Alliance formed in 2024. The Earth Fire Alliance partners include: MuonSpace, Google, Gordon and Betty Foundation and the EDF.

Fire detection is not new.

In 1910 a massive fire swept across Northeastern Washington, Idaho, and Montana burning 3 million acres, destroying several towns, and killing 87 people, mostly fire fighters. At that time, the US Forestry service was only 5 years old, underfunded, and ill-equipped with mostly volunteer firefighters. That all changed after the fire. The fire fighting mission of the Forestry Service became clear: massive investments were made in lookout towers, telegraph lines, trail systems and training. Fire spotting became possible.5

FireSat won’t change the increasing occurrence of wildfires resulting from climate change, but it may result in quicker detection and response, and thus in less destructive fires. 

Let’s hope.

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Reading

  1. “FireSat Protoflight Commences, Ushering in a New Era of Wildfire Monitoring & Detection.” Accessed March 26, 2025. https://www.earthfirealliance.org/press-release/protoflight-launch.
  2. “MODIS Web.” Accessed March 26, 2025. https://modis.gsfc.nasa.gov/about/.
  3. NOAA / NESDIS / STAR website. “Center for Satellite Applications and Research - NOAA / NESDIS / STAR.” Accessed March 26, 2025. https://www.star.nesdis.noaa.gov/star/index.php.
  4. “Earth Fire Alliance.” Accessed March 19, 2025. https://www.earthfirealliance.org/.
  5. Egan, Timothy, The Big Burn: Teddy Roosevelt and the Fire That Saved America, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2009

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