Satellites and drones: Can tech save us in the age of megafires?

Embargoed until: Publicly released: 2024-06-22 01:00

Australia; ACT

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Firefighting technology could play a major role as bushfires become harder to contain under climate change, according to an opinion piece by Australian authors. The team outline how both fire prevention and firefighting techniques are likely to get harder to use with fewer cool days to do controlled burns, and more warm days of fire risk. They say current strategies and technologies for identifying and fighting fires will struggle, however developing new technologies such as specialised fire detection satellites and autonomous firefighting vehicles could help find fires more quickly, and fight them even when it would be unsafe for humans to do so.