New detection system in the U.S. uses AI to spot wildfires faster

13 Dec 2019

New detection system in the U.S. uses AI to spot wildfires faster

New detection system in the U.S. uses AI to spot wildfires fasterWildfires or forest fires are common in many parts of the US. Usually, the fires are seen from aeroplanes, watchtowers or when reported by locals.

However, a new technology using AI (Artificial Intelligence) has been developed, which may spot wildfires within a few minutes.

The Descartes Labs in Santa-Fe, US, uses AI to analyse data from satellite imagery.
 	The satellite imagery comes from two US weather satellites, the GOES-16 and GOES-17.
 	They look through satellite images for the presence of smoke or a change in the thermal infrared data.
 	It takes just 9 minutes to report a fire from the moment the images are captured by the two satellites and then studied by the AI technology.

The wildfire detector was launched in July 2019 and has been sending alerts to the forest and fire officials in the state of New Mexico.

The detector spots the fire at the exact location giving the latitude and longitude. This helps officials reach the wildfire faster, especially at night when the location of the fire is difficult to find.
 	Once the fire is detected and reported, there are different protocols or rules that are followed by forest officials to extinguish the fire. These protocols differ from state to state.

Global warming and climate changes are responsible for more wildfires than ever before. A number of technology companies are trying to build different solutions to help detect, stop and even prevent the wildfires.

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Wildfires or forest fires are common in many parts of the US. Usually, the fires are seen from aeroplanes, watchtowers or when reported by locals. […]

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Comments: 1

rakshitchauhan says:

13 December 2019 at 5:36 pm

good question

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