Shooting from the universe: Startups enable early detection of wildfires via satellites

According to Earth System Science data, wildfires are responsible for about 6% of the Planet's carbon dioxide emissions. More than 46 million acres of land were destroyed by wildfires during Australia's 2019-2020 bushfire season alone, killing nearly 500 million mammals, birds and reptiles.

OroraTech, a start-up accelerator member of NVIDIA, is addressing these issues through its wildfire detection and monitoring services.

The Munich-based start-up is facing this challenge head-on. The company primarily relies on data from satellites, combined with data from ground-based cameras, aerial observations and local weather information, to prevent one of today's most common disasters.

Björn Stoffers, one of the company's co-founders, said: "Wildfires are a natural phenomenon, but global warming is making this phenomenon worse. In addition to more drought, pest infestation and higher temperatures, humans are also building houses in wildfire-prone areas. Our goal is to monitor wildfires around the world and detect every fire within 30 minutes. ”

Detailed detection methods

The data suggests that global warming may be faster than we think. Temperatures are rising, carbon dioxide levels are reaching new highs, and extreme weather events are occurring more frequently. Preventing wildfires can reduce a large part of carbon dioxide emissions and, more importantly, protect lives and property.

OroraTech provides risk assessment capabilities to help monitor areas before wildfires occur. This comprehensive approach analyzes the fire risk index, wind particle layer, and vegetation greenness and humidity levels, highlighting vulnerable areas where wildfires are prone to spread.

During wildfire burning, the company employs early detection and real-time monitoring, and its system can even use images from 19 satellites and a large number of ground-based cameras to detect wildfires in remote areas and then show visual renderings of the area and how the fires developed.

In the Special Reserve in Nyasa Province, Mozambique, the Wildlife Conservation Society has become proficient in using OroraTech's system. Rangers are able to prevent a base camp only 100 meters from the fire from burning through wildfire warnings.

The system also provides damage analysis that can be used to assess air pollution, sources of fire and burned areas after wildfires.

Images of wildfires burning captured by OroraTech

Speed matters

While OroraTech has accelerated wildfire prevention and detection through its services, there are still limitations due to sharing satellites with other users. Sometimes coverage is not possible, and data download times can be up to 1.5 hours. Wildfires have always been "known" for their speed — on the prairie, they can reach speeds of up to 14 mph.

This year, OroraTech launched its own AI nanosatellites, which are equipped with the NVIDIA Jetson Xavier NX system. This small, low-power module provides 21 trillion accelerated computations per second at just 15 watts of power. It can run modern neural networks in parallel and quickly process data from multiple high-resolution sensors, sending data within 2-3 minutes of a wildfire so that ground personnel can take immediate action.

Due to the use of smaller sensors, the cost of building, launching and operating these microsatellites is only a fraction of that of a large satellite. This allows OroraTech to easily launch a constellation of more than 100 satellites for greater coverage of the Earth.

From satellites to start-ups

Stoffers, Thomas Grübler, Florian Mauracher and Rupert Amann founded OroraTech, an affiliate of the Technical University of Munich, in 2018, where they research space and satellite technology. Today, OroraTech employs more than 50 people worldwide, and the company is committed to revolutionizing wildfire management around the world.

The company's efforts were fueled by NVIDIA startup acceleration. NVIDIA's Startup Accelerator program provides time-to-market support, expertise, and technology to AI, data science, and high-performance computing startups. "NVIDIA Startup Acceleration has helped us grow, including training support, access to hardware, and visibility in communications and venture capital activities," said Stoffers. ”

Looking back at previous wildfire data, OroraTech believes its technology can save large areas of forest. Looking ahead, the company aims to help achieve key UN Sustainable Development Goals, such as sustainable communities, climate action and saving lives on land.

This is a remarkable achievement for a small but growing innovation.