Earth · Wildfire

Where will the next wildfire start?

A satellite 800 km up can detect a fire smaller than a football pitch. Then what?

of global burned area is in Africa: ~70%
VIIRS thermal detection pixel: 375 m
typical alert latency from orbit: 3 hrs

Heat from orbit

Every few hours, thermal sensors pass over the savanna and measure heat. Fire burns far hotter than sun-baked ground, so active flames light up as intense hotspots — even through thin smoke.

Not every hot pixel is a fire

Sunlit rock, tin roofs and industrial sites also run warm. Analysts learn to separate moderate heat from the sharp, intense signature of a real fire before alerts go out to rangers and farmers.

Weather decides the rest

Once a fire starts, wind, humidity and dry fuel decide how fast it runs. Fire weather indices combine these into a single number that tells crews where to stand ready.

Your mission

3 Ops, about 6 minutes

1
Tactical · SPOTSpot the active fires
2
Tactical · PREDICTPredict the fire’s behaviour
3
Technical · INTERPRETRead the fire weather index

Evidence you can earn

Competencies this mission builds

Observation & Anomaly DetectionNoticing what is different, moving or out of place in images, signals and data.
Up to L2
Remote Sensing InterpretationUnderstanding what sensors in the sky can and cannot reveal about the ground.
L1
Risk AssessmentWeighing likelihood and consequence to decide when and how to act.
L1

Leads toward Remote Sensing Analyst, Earth Observation Scientist, Flight Operations Specialist.

Start mission