Greece is getting serious about preventing wildfires. And they are partnering up with a satellite startup to do it.
What’s happening:
- The government of Greece has awarded satellite startup OroraTech €20M to leverage their satellite imaging technology to help prevent wildfires
Why it matters:
- This is the first time a European country has ever launched a national wildfire project to help prevent fires from spreading and causing harm
The big idea:
- OroraTech uses satellites in orbit to rapidly identify potential wildfire risks before they become serious threats and begin to spread
- OroraTech has built a custom artificial intelligence screening technology that has been trained on unique images of early outbreaks of wildfires to spot potential risks and patterns across multiple different types of terrain
Going deeper:
- The new investment into OroraTech from the Greek government will be part of a larger collaboration with the European Space Agency and the Greek Ministry of Digital Governance
The intrigue:
- OroraTech was originally founded as a spinout from the Technical University of Munich, leveraging research and development that was done at the university around thermal imaging technology for satellites
