Researchers and officials often turn to satellites to better understand and manage wildfires. Now a nonprofit has put its own satellites into orbit that it says will improve the data and imagery available to those studying and managing wildfires.
Satellites like NOAA and NASA’s GOES constellation have been an important fire science tool for years. Over the summer, the nonprofit Earth Fire Alliance launched the first three satellites of its FireSat program, and the first images taken by them were recently released.
The trio of satellites was “purpose built for fire” while other constellations were built for a wide variety of things, “not just fire and not specifically for fire,” said Michael Falkowski, the alliance’s chief scientist and a former manager of NASA’s wildfire program. “So that's really the key difference.”
The satellites were built by the company Muon Space, according to a release.
The initial launch was supported by philanthropy, but Falkowski said that expanding the constellation as Earth Fire Alliance hopes to will require coming up “with a creative business model to be able to fund the continual build and operation of the satellite system.” He specifically mentioned potential interest in the data for the insurance, utility and national security sectors.
But the Alliance is “committed” to certain users never having to pay for the data.
“We want to deliver our data free of charge to fire fighting agencies, fire management organizations, and the global fire science community,” he said, adding that “this is an unprecedented data set that we have.”
For managers, Falkowski said there’s interest in the satellites’ ability to aid early detection of fires, both to speed suppression when that’s appropriate or to allow them to burn when it’s safe to do so.
Citing one example of their potential relevance to researchers, he said the satellite data could also help improve wildfire smoke forecasting.
“We'll be able to, number one, have more confidence in the air quality forecast, but then also be able to push it out a couple extra days,” he said of the potential impacts.
By 2029, the Earth Fire Alliance hopes to have 20 or more satellites orbiting, which would provide images of every point of land at least every hour, according to Falkowski.
This story was produced by the Mountain West News Bureau, a collaboration between Boise State Public Radio, Wyoming Public Media, Nevada Public Radio, KUNR in Nevada, KUNC in Northern Colorado, KANW in New Mexico, Colorado Public Radio and KJZZ in Arizona as well as NPR, with support from affiliate newsrooms across the region. Funding for the Mountain West News Bureau is provided in part by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting and Eric and Wendy Schmidt.
