Project description
Monitoring wildfires from space
The impact of climate change is being seen in the substantial warming and increases in the number of heat waves, droughts and dry spells. There are also marked increases in fire danger in most European regions. To detect and monitor (in real time) the wildfires in Europe and around the world, scientists can use high-resolution thermal images. The EU-funded OroraTech project will launch a constellation of 100 CubeSats (the biggest one in Europe and the third biggest in the world). By integrating advances in miniature electronics, computing and space technology, the project will deliver the first commercially viable satellite delivering high-resolution thermal imaging. It will also provide 24-hour surveillance.
Objective
OroraTech aims to launch a constellation of 100 CubeSats (the biggest one in Europe and the third biggest in the world) to provide high resolution thermal images of the entire globe enabling the automatic detection and real time monitoring of wildfires across the globe. Fuelled by rising temperatures, wildfires have become more common, deadly, expensive and difficult to contain, resulting in over 200 deaths and damage >€23bn in the EU and US alone, in 2018. Their causes are unpredictable and so the only solution is early detection and suppression. With 4% of the earth’s surface affected, there are no technologies to viably provide continuous high resolution monitoring, with current satellite technology either having a too low resolution or inadequate overpass frequency.
OroraTech provides a breakthrough by integrating the latest advances in miniature electronics, computing and space technology to deliver the first commercially viable CubeSat delivering high resolution thermal imaging. We will cover the whole earth at 0.1% of current satellite technology costs providing 24hr surveillance at a high resolution delivering data in a matter of minutes. This will reduce fire suppression costs by 25% and detection infrastructure capital costs by up to 90% resulting in global savings in the order of billions of euros. With wildfires contributing 20% of global CO2 emissions annually, our solution potentially reduces global CO2 emissions by >2%.
We are attacking a high growth market worth over €7bn/yr by 2027 with over 16 million potential customers in EU alone. We have already received the support of the German Aerospace Centre, European Space Agency, and Global Fire Monitoring Centre, and attracted the attention of the biggest forest service (US) in the world.
Fields of science
Programme(s)
Funding Scheme
SME-1 - SME instrument phase 1Coordinator
80992 MUNICH
Germany
The organization defined itself as SME (small and medium-sized enterprise) at the time the Grant Agreement was signed.