Greece pins hopes on heat-seeking satellites to predict wildfires

Published 16 July 2026 · sports

The country, which suffers enormously each summer, is building a growing arsenal of high-tech surveillance to help pre-position firefighters. Athens, Greece – Nine storeys off

The country, which suffers enormously each summer, is building a growing arsenal of high-tech surveillance to help pre-position firefighters. Athens, Greece – Nine storeys off the surface of the Earth in a northern Athens suburb, half a dozen young engineers are busy reading images from four satellites orbiting 550km (340 miles) above them. The tasking room of the Hellenic Space Center (HSC) at first seems ordinary. It is only the wall-sized screen at the end of the room that offers any hint that something extraordinary is happening here. These satellites are Greece’s first with thermal imaging technology and are set to revolutionise fire response in the country at a time when climate change is causing drought and frequent wildfires. By monitoring ground temperature and humidity, they can help predict where a forest fire may happen in the next few hours – a capability the Hellenic Fire Service has never had with such accuracy. Once a fire does break out, the HSC can now model how it will spread by mapping vegetation and elevation, helping to direct fire trucks and, on impassable terrain, foot patrols referred to as forest commandos. These predictive abilities can help the fire service pre-position assets and shorten response times, but the satellites also bring unique properties to a firefight. “When there is a fire, there is a lot of smoke, and these satellites can see through the smoke and find exactly where the hot spots are, where the fires are burning,” HSC President Emmanuel Rammos told Al Jazeera.

That can help direct helicopters and planes to perform more precise water bombings. “The satellites can tell us where the fire fronts are at night, which is extremely useful for the fire service when it’s planning the first morning water-bombing flights,” Tryfon Farmakakis, a space systems scientist at the HSC, told Al Jazeera. These satellites, which are less than half a metre long, about the size of a briefcase, can also provide tactically important details of the terrain to commanders. “When you are fighting a fire, it’s good to know where the buildings are, if there are high-tension cables, if there are water reservoirs or access roads,” Rammos said. The four satellites form a necklace following the same Earth orbit from the South Pole to the North Pole, and each of them passes over Greece approximately twice a day. To have a constant, real-time picture of the country’s 132,000 square kilometres (51,000 square miles), the HSC has access to about 20 others owned by OroraTech, which built the Greek satellites. Greece is also launching seven more satellites this year, built by Open Cosmos, which will be multi-spectral – meaning they can observe the Earth using different light frequencies. They, too, will help detect fires, but can also monitor environmental health. “They allow us to estimate chlorophyll content, the vitality of vegetation, water stress, the presence of pathogens and the health of forests in general,” said Farmakakis. With 10,000 fires a year, watching forests like a hawk Greece’s fire service has been undergoing a broader technological upgrade.