Greece pins hopes on heat-seeking satellites to predict wildfires

Athens, Greece – Nine storeys disconnected the aboveground of the Earth successful a bluish Athens suburb, fractional a twelve young engineers are engaged speechmaking images from 4 satellites orbiting 550km (340 miles) supra them.

The tasking country of the Hellenic Space Center (HSC) astatine archetypal seems ordinary. It is lone the wall-sized surface astatine the extremity of the country that offers immoderate hint that thing bonzer is happening here.

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These satellites are Greece’s archetypal with thermal imaging exertion and are acceptable to revolutionise occurrence effect successful the state astatine a clip erstwhile clime alteration is causing drought and predominant wildfires.

By monitoring crushed somesthesia and humidity, they tin assistance foretell wherever a wood occurrence whitethorn hap successful the adjacent fewer hours – a capableness the Hellenic Fire Service has ne'er had with specified accuracy.

Once a occurrence does interruption out, the HSC tin present exemplary however it volition dispersed by mapping vegetation and elevation, helping to nonstop occurrence trucks and, connected impassable terrain, ft patrols referred to arsenic wood commandos.

These predictive abilities tin assistance the occurrence work pre-position assets and shorten response times, but the satellites besides bring unsocial properties to a firefight.

“When determination is simply a fire, determination is simply a batch of smoke, and these satellites tin spot done the fume and find precisely wherever the blistery spots are, wherever the fires are burning,” HSC President Emmanuel Rammos told Al Jazeera.

That tin assistance nonstop helicopters and planes to execute much precise h2o bombings.

Greek officials are investing successful outer exertion arsenic the state regularly suffers from devastating wildfires [Courtesy: Hellenic Space Centre]

“The satellites tin archer america wherever the occurrence fronts are astatine night, which is highly utile for the occurrence work erstwhile it’s readying the archetypal greeting water-bombing flights,” Tryfon Farmakakis, a abstraction systems idiosyncratic astatine the HSC, told Al Jazeera.

These satellites, which are little than fractional a metre long, astir the size of a briefcase, tin besides supply tactically important details of the terrain to commanders.

“When you are warring a fire, it’s bully to cognize wherever the buildings are, if determination are high-tension cables, if determination are h2o reservoirs oregon entree roads,” Rammos said.

The 4 satellites signifier a necklace pursuing the aforesaid Earth orbit from the South Pole to the North Pole, and each of them passes implicit Greece astir doubly a day.

To person a constant, real-time representation of the country’s 132,000 quadrate kilometres (51,000 quadrate miles), the HSC has entree to astir 20 others owned by OroraTech, which built the Greek satellites.

Greece is besides launching 7 much satellites this year, built by Open Cosmos, which volition beryllium multi-spectral – meaning they tin observe the Earth utilizing antithetic airy frequencies.

They, too, volition assistance observe fires, but tin besides show biology health.

“They let america to estimation chlorophyll content, the vitality of vegetation, h2o stress, the beingness of pathogens and the wellness of forests successful general,” said Farmakakis.

With 10,000 fires a year, watching forests similar a hawk

Greece’s occurrence work has been undergoing a broader technological upgrade.

Until 2 years ago, occurrence warnings came from patrols, occurrence engines dispersed connected mountains and lookout posts.

But Greece present reports astir 10,000 wood and tract fires a year.

Such accepted means cannot screen the terrain, fto unsocial quickly, and aboriginal informing is captious to halt immoderate 1 of these fires from spreading to catastrophic proportions.

That is what happened successful August 2021, erstwhile a occurrence raged successful the posh Athens suburb of Varibobi, requiring dozens of occurrence trucks, planes and helicopters.

At the aforesaid time, a tiny occurrence adjacent Limni, connected the land of Evia, went unattended for 2 days, until the upwind whipped it up into an inferno that devastated the amended portion of 100,000 hectares (247,100 acres) of conifer forest.

A firefighter tries to extinguish a blaze successful the colony of Avgaria, connected the land of Evia, Greece, August 10, 2021 [Stelios Misinas/Reuters]

It happened again successful August 2023, erstwhile several simultaneous fires thought to person been sparked by a lightning tempest devastated 72,000 hectares (178,000 acres) of Western Thrace and East Macedonia.

In 2024, the occurrence work started utilizing aerial drones. It present flies them 24 hours a day, watching forests and suburban areas crossed the country.

They supply a unrecorded video provender and thermal imaging to determination operations centres and a nationalist situation absorption centre.

“Two years ago, we were operating 40 drones, past twelvemonth 80, and this twelvemonth 105,” occurrence brigadier Alexandros Papaioannou told Al Jazeera. “Drones person changed firefighting operations due to the fact that until now, fires were spotted by lookouts 8 oregon 10 metres [26 oregon 32 feet] disconnected the ground. Drones present alert astatine 120 metres [400 feet], person a much almighty zoom than a brace of binoculars, and tin stock video for 10 oregon 15 radical to evaluate.”

He explained wherefore real-time accusation is important.

“You tin enactment retired a occurrence with a solid of h2o if you spot it wrong a minute, and with a bucket of h2o wrong 2 minutes. Every infinitesimal that passes it gets bigger,” Papaioannou said.

‘Satellites connection the large picture’

Drones are besides helping the occurrence service’s forensic section clamp down connected fires caused by quality activity, whether negligent oregon malicious.

The occurrence work made 228 arrests successful 2022 and 206 arrests successful 2023. In 2024 and 2025, erstwhile drones were successful use, arrests doubled to 430 and 423, respectively.

There has been a corresponding emergence successful fines, from nether 300,000 euros ($342,000) successful 2022-23 to 1.5 cardinal euros ($1.7m) past year.

Drones “contribute decisively” to investigating fires, the Directorate for Countering Crimes of Arson (DAEE) told Al Jazeera, by providing “crucial aboriginal grounds … astir the absorption of the occurrence and signifier of the terrain”, helping to reconstruct the event.

Satellites and drones are acceptable to stay a captious portion of Greece’s firefighting response, says Iasonas Aliferis, secretary-general of the Association of Graduate Fire Service Officers.

“Satellites connection the large picture, drones and aeroplanes connection the tactical picture, and crushed unit connection the operational truth,” Aliferis told Al Jazeera. “We’re moving from a reactive exemplary of effect to a exemplary of prevention, monitoring, aboriginal warning, accelerated absorption and grounded operational decision-making.”