Wildfire Detection Performance of OroraTech’s Thermal Satellite Constellation

Wildfires are an increasingly critical natural hazard, requiring rapid and reliable detection in order to support emergency measures. OroraTech operates a dedicated thermal-infrared satellite constellation to address this need. As of January 2026, this constellation comprises ten satellites, providing a swath of ~400 km and imaging at a ground sampling distance of 200 m. A key feature of the system is on-orbit fire detection, where thermal data is processed directly onboard the satellites. This onboard processing minimizes downlink requirements and substantially reduces detection latency, enabling the delivery of near-real-time wildfire hotspot alerts which improves situational awareness during rapidly evolving fire events.

The OroraTech constellation will be further expanded until a global revisit time of approximately 30 minutes is reached. Such high temporal resolution, combined with low-latency onboard processing, is expected to substantially improve the early detection of emerging fires, particularly during critical afternoon and evening hours. This is where many established Earth observation (EO) missions have limited coverage.

In this contribution, we present recent observations from the constellation and evaluate its wildfire detection performance across a range of fire events. We compare our results with fire products from established EO missions, including products from VIIRS onboard the Suomi-NPP, NOAA-20 and NOAA-21 satellites as well as from FCI onboard the MTG satellite. The analysis focuses on quantifying the detection accuracy of the OroraTech products. Finally, we discuss how such agile, high-revisit cubesat observations can complement traditional satellite systems to enhance the monitoring of wildfire hazards and operational risk management.