Choose Your Own Adventure: Firefighting from Space - Part II
What Eyes Will You Give Your Satellite?
Welcome back, adventurer.
Last time, you chose your satellite’s orbit. You’ve got a spacecraft flying overhead, right on schedule… but there's a problem.
It’s blind.
You can’t fight wildfires if you can’t see them. It’s time to choose your satellite’s eyes and like all great choices, this one will shape your mission forever.
Step 4: Pick Your Vision Path
Imagine yourself at mission control. Three doors light up in front of you, each one labeled with a different way to "see" the Earth.
Which one do you walk through?
🚪 Door 1: RGB Camera — The Familiar Lens
"I want to start simple. Let’s put a regular camera on this thing."
Just like your smartphone camera, RGB sensors capture the Earth in true color. You’ll see smoke plumes, vegetation, even city lights. But fires? Not always.
Great for:
✅ Taking beautiful images
✅ Mapping affected areas
❌ Not great through clouds or smoke
❌ Can’t detect heat
👉 Explore real RGB imagery on Copernicus Browser
🧭 Not convinced? Go back and pick another sensor
🚪 Door 2: Thermal Infrared — The Fire Seeker
"Forget pretty pictures — I want to see the heat."
Thermal cameras detect infrared radiation — the heat radiated by active fires. Even through smoke or at night, your CubeSat becomes a fire hunter.
Great for:
🔥 Detecting active fire fronts
🌒 Night-time surveillance
☁️ Seeing through smoke
⚡ Needs more power and higher bandwidth
👉 Explore real infrared imagery on Copernicus Browser
🧭 Want to combine this with other views? Try the multispectral path
🚪 Door 3: Multispectral — The Data Alchemist
"I want layers of information — vegetation, burn severity, and more."
Multispectral sensors capture more than just visible light. You get near-infrared (NIR), shortwave infrared (SWIR), and more — perfect for computing vegetation indexes like NDVI and NBR, which help assess burn scars and forest health.
Great for:
🌲 Measuring vegetation stress
🔥 Calculating burn severity
🛰 Used in Sentinel-2, Landsat, PlanetScope
⚠️ Data-heavy — you’ll need to process more on board or on the ground
👉 Explore real multispectral imagery on Copernicus Browser
🧭 Want to simplify? Go back and check RGB
Step 5: Choose Your Sensor Module
You’ve picked your vision style — now it’s time to go shopping.
Type: RGB
Resolution: ~3 km (from 500 km altitude)
Suitability: DIY/custom payloads, not space-rated by default
Price: $100–$300
Type: Thermal IR
Resolution: ~50 m (from 500 km altitude)
Suitability: Very compact, ideal for fire detection
Price: $250–$400
Type: RGB standard
Resolution: ~39 m (from 500 km altitude)
Suitability: Compact 1U-class imager for CubeSats ≥2U, flight-proven
Price: ~$15,000–$30,000 (estimated)
Type: Hyperspectral + Thermal + RGB
Resolution: ~75m in visible channel (from 500 km altitude)
Suitability: 3U+, advanced EO missions
Price: $200,000–$400,000
🧠 Each sensor comes with trade-offs in power, volume, data rate, and cost.
❓Want to revisit your mission needs before deciding? Jump back to Step 4
Step 6: Time to Play with Fire (Data)
No matter what you chose, it’s time to see how the pros do it.
🧪 Here are some real tools where you can play with wildfire imagery:
🔥 Copernicus Browser– Compare RGB, NDVI, and SWIR views. Try fire-damaged areas like California or Australia.
🌍 NASA Worldview – Real-time data from MODIS and VIIRS.
🛰 Zoom Earth – Satellite views, heat maps, and more.
📦 To Be Continued…
Your satellite now has eyes, but seeing is just the beginning.
Soon, you’ll face even bigger questions: How will you process the data? Where will you store it? Can you send it back to Earth fast enough?
All these choices will shape your mission’s success.
This is just one of many steps in designing your CubeSat adventure, and I can’t wait to keep learning with you through the next one.
🚀 See you in the next chapter!
