Most satellites that spot fires were built to do something else, and they notice a blaze only once it is big. FireSat is different: it is the first satellite constellation designed for wildfires and nothing else. In July, the first three operational satellites reached orbit, built by Muon Space for the Earth Fire Alliance, each carrying a six channel infrared eye that can pick out a fire just five metres by five metres, about the size of a classroom, and see it through smoke and cloud, day or night.
Three satellites already give every fire prone region on Earth at least two dedicated checks a day, and that is only the beginning: the plan grows the constellation until it looks in every hour by 2029, and the full fleet is designed to update every twenty minutes. The Amazon basin is among the early priorities. A test satellite flying ahead of these three has already proven the idea by finding a small, cool fire that other satellites could not see. Fires will always start. The difference is how small they are when we find them, and that number is about to shrink.
Our short take: details are from the Earth Fire Alliance and Muon Space announcements of the July launch. Photograph: Unsplash.