Earth Fire Alliance wildfire detection project promises faster response
Iain Hoey
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Brian Collins, Executive Director of Earth Fire Alliance discusses the future of wildfire detection and monitoring
Can you tell us about Earth Fire Alliance and how the FireSat programme came about?
Earth Fire Alliance is a 501c3 nonprofit organisation seeking to transform humanity’s collective response to the escalating global wildfire crisis.
We are spearheading FireSat, a first-of-its-kind satellite constellation that will provide high-fidelity wildfire data and deliver near real-time detection and monitoring capabilities to first responders, incident commanders and scientists worldwide.
The FireSat orbital demonstration launched in March 2025 and we recently released the first wildfire images taken by the satellite.
The Alliance was founded in 2024 to ensure that the wildfire and science community have accurate, reliable and accessible data at their fingertips as they protect our communities and resources in the face of increasingly frequent, intense and fast-moving wildfires.
Why aren’t existing satellite systems meeting the needs of those tackling wildfires today?
Today’s satellites are useful but are not precise, fast, or reliable enough to meet the high stakes of modern wildfires.
Most of the satellites we rely on today were built for other purposes such as weather monitoring, Earth observation, or high-resolution imagery.
As a result, they can’t detect small fires and have trouble collecting and reporting on the dynamic characteristics of wildfires such as fire intensity, spotting and movement.
Finally, traditional space-based fire data isn’t always available in near real-time or in the formats and products useful for rapid decision-making.
What sets FireSat apart in terms of what it can detect and how quickly it can deliver that information?
FireSat is uniquely designed for precise, real-time wildfire detection and monitoring in order to give firefighters, decision-makers and the public enough situational awareness to address the changing scope and scale of wildfire impacts across the planet.
At full capacity, our satellites will deliver global monitoring every 20 minutes or less.
Current satellites detect fires once they are two to three acres in size (approximately two football fields), whereas FireSat will be able to detect fires that are orders of magnitude smaller, roughly the area of a one-car garage.
FireSat will be unmatched by any combination of existing or planned infrared satellites in terms of imagery detail, accuracy and speed.
Looking ahead, what kind of impact do you hope FireSat will have on how the world prepares for and manages wildfires?
FireSat has the potential to fundamentally shift our understanding of how wildfire affects communities across the planet.
FireSat will make our communities safer by providing early detection and reporting of wildfires that threaten us.
It will also open up new wildfire management strategies and approaches to preserve unique ecologies across the planet.
We’re building real-time fire intelligence that captures the complete spectrum of fire activity and aim to be a catalyst for a united global response to the wildfire crisis.
We want to put these tools into the hands of as many decision-makers as possible, empowering a global user community with precise, timely and trustworthy data for confident and effective decision-making.