On the driest days of wildfire season, multiple fires a day can spark across the western landscape. With so much fire activity and such a large landscape to protect, emergency managers and wildland firefighters are looking for all the help they can get to detect threatening fires and put them out before they encroach on homes and communities.

Answering their call are a slew of new high-tech systems that are leveraging technological advancements in artificial intelligence, imaging, and satellite technology to detect fires on the landscape faster than ever before.

According to a recent announcement, Google is teaming up with the California-based nonprofit Earth Fire Alliance to deploy more than 50 satellites that will be able to detect wildfires more quickly and reliably.

Using artificial intelligence and machine learning technology, the FireSat constellation will be able to detect wildfires as small as 16 by 16 feet, while providing updated data to firefighters every 20 minutes.

In addition to helping emergency response and firefighting efforts, researchers also say that the satellites will help develop more accurate modeling of how wildfires behave to better understand the factors that impact a fire’s spread.  

Artificial intelligence is one technology that is becoming increasingly widespread in the wildfire detection business, with numerous private sector companies joining the effort, and states across the West implementing new technologies.

Alchera X has developed its FireScout AI technology to employ fire-spotting cameras that can detect smoke and potential fire activity over a vast landscape in the West. In the case of FireScout, AI-generated detections are confirmed by a human and quickly passed on to local fire crews.

Pano AI employs similar technology, which was recently deployed in the Tetons, near the Idaho-Wyoming border.

Other systems like ALERTWildfire, which is a consortium of The University of Nevada, Reno, and the University of Oregon, deploy a wide range of technologies, including a system of fire cameras and associated tools, to help firefighters detect and locate ignitions, as well as monitor fire behavior and help boost situational awareness.

To support effective wildfire response after an ignition, Lockheed Martin has teamed up with NVIDIA on a project to use artificial intelligence-based approaches to predict and simulate wildfire behavior on the landscape. The technology will help wildland firefighters and first responders better understand the potential path and shape of a wildfire in real time, allowing crews to stay ahead of fast-moving blazes.

Companies like Colorado-based Intterra take a similar approach by employing high-tech mapping technology to help firefighting crews and municipalities plan for and respond to wildfire threats and other natural disasters. Their technology provides real time situational awareness software to help crews make informed decisions in both wildland and urban natural disaster environments.

Many of these systems incorporate data from NASA’s Fire Information for Resource Management System, which delivers satellite observations of active fires and thermal anomalies in near-real time.

Other new technologies, like one displayed by the Department of Homeland Security in Colorado recently, include advanced sensors that “smell” the presence of wildfire in its earliest stages.

The device, which was developed by the company N5 Sensors, works by reading the particulates in the air along with the temperature, humidity, and atmospheric pressure to determine the presence of a fire, often before flames or smoke become visible.

In 2022, Gilpin County in Colorado became the first place in the country to employ these sensors. After installing about 100 sensors on utility poles across the county, they have detected three fires, including one that re-ignited after it had been extinguished. Jefferson County will soon be installing N5 sensors as well, and emergency managers hope that they will help detect fires like this summer’s Quarry Fire, which was discovered when a sheriff’s deputy happened to spot the blaze at two in the morning.

In California, a collaborative that includes the Santa Clara County FireSafe Council, Stanford University, the Palo Alto Fire Department, the Department of Homeland Security, and the Woodside Fire Protection District have installed 50 N5 sensors to monitor and detect the earliest signs of wildfire in the Bay Area. 

With nearly every western state grappling with wildfire threats, new detection technology and related tools are likely to become even more vital for emergency managers across the region.

Citizens push for RECA: advocates from tribal lands in New Mexico travelled more than 30 hours by bus to Washington, D.C., recently to advocate for the reauthorization of the Radiation Exposure Compensation Act (RECA).

The group met with the New Mexico delegation in Washington and stood alongside lawmakers at a news conference on Tuesday. Survivors and family members called for the legislation to be considered by the full House, as it has already passed the Senate.

If reauthorized, RECA would continue to provide compensation to individuals affected by radiation exposure related to nuclear weapons development and testing. The Act was originally passed in 1990, though it expired earlier this year.

In May, Western Governors sent a letter to House leadership urging RECA’s consideration by the full House. Read that letter here.

Utah solar: Governor Spencer Cox helped break ground on a new solar array in eastern Utah recently, which will generate enough electricity to power 88,000 homes.

The Green River Energy Center in Emery County will be one of the country’s largest solar arrays, with a price tag of $1.1 billion. While much of the energy produced at the site will be used in Utah, the facility will also serve the PacifiCorp network, which includes six western states.

“This project is being built in rural Utah, by rural Utahns, and for all of Utah. When rural Utah thrives, the entire state prospers,” said Governor Spencer Cox. “Today, we’re not just breaking ground — we’re building a future of affordable, abundant energy in Utah.”

Wildfire fuels reduction: western states are set to receive $20 million to thin flammable trees and underbrush, particularly in areas near homes.

Funds will support projects in Colorado, Idaho, New Mexico, and Wyoming to thin brush and implement prescribed burns to protect homes.

In Wyoming, the program will also help tribal members heat their homes with wood that is harvested from fire mitigation work.

Sustainable aviation fuel: the sustainable aviation fuel startup Twelve recently announced $645 million in new funding to help complete construction on its facility in Moses Lake, Washington.

Twelve broke ground on the project in 2023, and it is slated to be the state’s first commercial-scale facility producing sustainable aviation fuel. The plant will use ethanol produced in Washington and hydropower from nearby dams to produce its E-Jet fuel.

Twelve says that its fuels can reduce emissions by as much as 90% while using far less land and water as compared to alternatives.

Endangered fish restoration: in Solano County, California, water managers breached a levee to allow water to flow into 3,400 acres of restored habitat that will support fish and wildlife species and help reduce flood risk in the Sacramento area.

The Lookout Slough Tidal Habitat Restoration and Flood Improvement Project will restore tidal wetland habitat and produce food for endangered Delta Smelt populations.

The project will also provide 100-year flood protection with allowances for future sea level rise to protect surrounding communities from future flooding.