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Ibadan, 7 May 2024. – Muon Space, in partnership with Earth Fire Alliance (EFA), has announced the FireSat Constellation aiming to transform global wildfire response and enhance climate resilience worldwide. The FireSat Constellation will provide comprehensive, high-fidelity data to protect Earth’s ecosystems from the escalating threat of wildfires.
The first phase of the FireSat Constellation, launching in 2026, will comprise three Muon Halo™ satellites featuring 6-band multispectral infrared (IR) instruments designed and optimized for the wildfire mission. Furthermore, able to capture comprehensive fire characterization data across every stage of a fire’s lifecycle, the FireSat Constellation will give decision-makers and first responders near real-time insights, enabling informed responses.
With the first three satellites, the FireSat Constellation will observe every point on Earth at least twice a day, revisiting key wildfire-prone regions more frequently. Consequently, at full capability with 50+ satellites, the revisit times for most of the globe improve to 20 minutes, with the most wildfire-prone regions benefitting from sampling intervals as short as nine minutes.
Muon Space developed FireSat over the last five years with the expertise and support of Google Research and leading non-governmental organizations (NGOs), including the Environmental Defense Fund (EDF), Google.org, the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation, and the Minderoo Foundation, along with guidance from over 200 members of the federal, state, and local fire community.
Speaking on the initiative, Brian Collins, Executive Director of Earth Fire Alliance, said, “We are happy to introduce this transformative capability to fire-response communities. We believe that high-fidelity data, equitably accessible on a global scale, will help us more effectively reduce the negative impacts of wildfires, improve land management, and recognize beneficial fire practices that contribute to more resilient communities. FireSat will change the way we view wildfires across the planet.”
