ATHENS – Plagued by annual summer wildfires – many deadly and said arson to allow development – Greece’s tools for battling them have included water-dropping aircraft and surveillance drones, and now the world’s first space monitoring system.

The Ministry of Digital Governance invested 20 million euros ($21.66 million) to develop four thermal satellites and a wildfire system with  the thermal intelligence provider OroraTech, said GeoSpatial World.

https://www.geospatialworld.net/prime/greece-builds-worlds-first-wildfire-monitoring-system/

“By investing specifically into orbital technology, we are making a real difference in monitoring wildfires that threaten human lives, our ecosystems, and our economy,” said Digital Governance Minister Dimitris Papastergiou.

“OroraTech’s wildfire detection and monitoring system scans for fires from orbit, creating unmatched situational awareness,” he said, the summer of 2024 seeing hundreds more but faster response to deal with them.

In recent years, Greece has experienced a significant number of wildfires that have affected approximately 2 percent of the country’s total land area, fighting fires difficult in the country’s mountainous regions.

Those areas also make communication more difficult, leading to the need for more advanced detection technologies during a digital age that far outstrips having observation posts in towers in the forests.

“As more and more countries brace themselves for a hot summer with constant risk of wildfires – and more holiday makers prepare to head to the heat – Greece is a great example of how technology – and spacetech – can play a role in mitigating the spread of wildfires and being alerted to them fast,” the site said.

How will it work?

OroraTech and its Greek partners won the contract in an open tender by the European Space Agency (ESA) to support the Greek National Satellites Space Program led by the Hellenic Space Center.

Founded in 2018, OroraTech, a Munich-based company, uses infrared data from satellites to provide wildfire intelligence to government and private industry customers to take advantage of modern technology.

Together with a consortium of Greek subcontractors, OroraTech will deliver a system for wildfire management, including ground systems and processing services, as well as a constellation of thermal imaging satellites dedicated to monitoring the entire country of Greece for wildfires, the site said.

“The capability OroraTech developed through the agency’s funding is a powerful example of space technologies providing immediate and critical benefits here on Earth,” Simoneteta Cheli, Director of Earth Observation Program at ESA told the site about the advantages.

OroraTech’s data services will be directly connected to the Greek emergency services and employ the expertise of Greek universities and industry. The company partners with the National Technical University of Athens to develop data product algorithms, the National & Kapodistrian University of Athens on space sensor development and calibration initiatives, Satways on product interoperability, and Attisat  on building a Greek-based ground station.

“The world-class know-how of our Greek partners for thermal sensing is instrumental in providing the best solution for this country,” Orora Tech CEO and CTO Martin Langer said. “Greece will be the first country worldwide to have a National satellite-based wildfire system in place.

OroraTech will significantly invest in Greece over the next years by opening an operations hub in Athens for its entire fleet of space sensors and a development team dedicated to advanced infrared sensing technology.

OroraTech’s spokesperson told Geospatial World that wildfires often occur far from human observation or detection and become so large so fast that it becomes difficult to put them down as they have already spread.

“Our satellites are continuously updating the emergency personnel in the route to show where the fire is, how the fire is spreading and where it’s going to spread next. So the role of orbital technology when it comes to forest fires, provides real time update and makes a real change when it comes to detecting and managing the fires,” said Langer.