Time is ripe for fire detection satellite, say Berkeley scientists

Re:Time is ripe for fire detection satellite, say Berkeley s... by privong on Friday November 15, 2013 @09:49PM (#6743351)

> during the summer months and daylight hours.

That's one advantage of a statellite: it's always looking.

Also, I suspect the UAVs would be more expensive than one might expect, once you factor in the manpower necessary to operate them (pilots and maintainence).

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Re:Time is ripe for fire detection satellite, say Berkeley s... by HorizonXP on Friday November 15, 2013 @10:29PM (#6743445)

I would imagine that forest fires are less likely to be started in the winters and at night, unless they're caused by humans i.e. campfires.

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Re:Time is ripe for fire detection satellite, say Berkeley s... by privong on Friday November 15, 2013 @11:05PM (#6743563)

I agree re:winters, but am not sure about nights. I imagine nighttime storms are not infrequent and so you could get a reasonable number of lightning strikes at night, causing fires.

Though, the UVA—satellite tradeoff also requires thinking about how soon you want to see a fire after it's been started. E.g., is 12 hours acceptable?

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