Google wants to improve in identifying fires from space

“With fire in particular, the times are compressed so much that you have to apply the technology to make a decision within the times you can influence on the result of what is happening,” says Collins.

Krystal Azelton, Senior Director of the Secure World Foundation, a non -profit organization that supports sustainable space policies, states that while the satellites and the IA Tech can provide better data, it is essential that the data do it in the right hands.

“The tendency towards artificial intelligence to help all this will obviously produce better results, but will not necessarily produce consistent results.” Azelton says. “This is really a great positive because one of my greatest concerns about any type of environmental monitoring from space is anyone who provides the data, how do you make the data in the final user?” Azelton says. “There are many technological solutions out there, but how do you put them in the hands of the people who actually use it?

Van Arsdale says that the goal of the Fire team is to make his tracement data as accessible as possible, and is committed to working directly with the fire agencies to do it.

“There is this type of war fog associated with fires, in which you don’t know where they are when they start,” says Van Arsdale on the attempt to present the idea of ​​this vast data collection band to fire officials. “We will only give you a photo of everything that is happening you could worry.”

Speed ​​Run

While more information is usually better in catastrophe situations, it is not clear whether this type of satellite detection will be much faster than it currently exists. Camera networks such as those distributed by Alertwildfire They were the first to identify fires throughout the western coast, including the mortal Palisades Fire in Los Angeles last January. There is also the fact that while the SAT cameras of the fire could be able to collect a fire when it starts, only having that information does not mean that the firefighters will be able to mobilize and get to the blaze in time.

Daniel Swain, a climate scientist who manages the blog Time to the west And he has long monitored the fires, he says that while the qualified updates for satellite could not solve all the realities of the response times, it would be useful to share information with people in immediate danger and keep people informed while the fire spreads.

“It does not really solve the basic basic problems, but it is probably a beneficial thing to do,” says Swain. “It helps to know exactly where there is a fire as soon as possible. Unfortunately it does not give us a great advantage in the most extreme conditions.”

These Fire Sat efforts also arrive in a moment of greater investment in technology aimed at fighting fires. That is to say, an increase in private companies that hopes to help build new fire -fighting solutions and profit from that technology. In June, President Trump signed an executive order For an “common sense” approach to the fight against fires, which provided for the priority of the efforts of fire technological companies, also combining the federal catastrophes agencies and instruct federal agencies to “declassify historical satellite data to improve the forecast of fires and review or eliminate the rules that prevent the detection of fires, prevention and response”.