Fighting Wildfires from Space With the Earth Fire Alliance

Article originally published on June 10, 2024.

Wildfires have a devastating impact on human and animal life, property, biodiversity, and air quality, local economies, and so much more. In this week’s On Orbit podcast, we hear about a new coalition bringing together NGOs, philanthropy, and a satellite company to change wildfire response.

Satellite company Muon Space is working with the Earth Fire Alliance, a new non-profit to build and deploy FireSat — a satellite constellation purpose-built for global wildfire response. The full satellite constellation announced in May is planned for more than 50 satellites. It was designed with input from more than 200 members of the research and fire communities. 

Our guests for this episode are Cathy Olkin, former NASA scientist and principal scientist for Muon Space, and Brian Collins, executive director of Earth Fire Alliance. They share how this coalition came together and why they turned to space technology to bring new and accessible data to first responders, climate scientists, and governments. 

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