FIRE SATELLITES

BY KEITH NUTHALLA EUROPEAN Space Agency-supported satellite ground station has been helping Canadian fire fighters to tackle a spate of large-scale blazes in British Columbia. TheREMSAT unit is driven or flown by helicopter close to a particular fire, establishing a link with satellite cameras, which beam back accurate one-metre resolution images, enabling fire teams to target their work, including the mapping of blaze perimeters.The system has been found to be extremely useful in rugged terrain, where radio communications are difficult to establish.Steve Newton, ...


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