$1.5M grant funding satellite technology to help firefighters get early upper hand

A $1.5 million grant from the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation will be used to equip spotter planes with detectors that can map and predict future movement for wildfires.

The planes will be equipped with improved infrared detectors that can take in real-time data that provide firefighters with information about a fire’s size and flame length. Using local wind speed and humidity data, the technology can also use machine learning algorithms to predict how far and how fast a fire will spread within 20 minutes of an outbreak.