Real-Time Natural Disasters Detection and Monitoring from Smart Earth Observation Satellite

Current remote sensing satellites with multispectral sensors capture high-resolution images and produce vast quantities of data. The size and volume of this information has dramatically increased in the last decade as sensor resolution and capabilities have significantly improved, without a similar improvement on the satellite system capacity to accommodate these changes. Remote sensing satellites currently operate on a “store and forward” paradigm, where data is stored on the satellite until the satellite is in view of the ground station. Low Earth orbit satellites may only see a ground station for a 10–15 min window per pass, in which time all the collected information must be telemetered to the ground. This process requires large and expensive onboard storage resources and places tremendous stress on communication channels. Hence, a complete image may not be successfully telemetered in one pass causing a significant delay between capture and analysis and limiting the benefits of these images. Smart satellites are more technologically advanced, require less ground station support and data storage, and are capable of transmitting required information quickly and easily to ground stations. With onboard reconfigurable data processing, these satellites have faster data product turnaround, less communication requirements, and provide more useful information. The high performance computing (HPC-I) payload on board the Australian satellite FedSat, launched in December 2002, is a demonstration device of the feasibility of reconfigurable computing technology in space. This device is small in size, requires low power, and has the processing capacity to handle large data volumes. Using this device in conjunction with a high-resolution imaging sensor, such as the bispectral infrared detection (BIRD) sensor, smart dedicated satellites become a feasible and cost effective solution to remote sensing needs. This paper elaborates on the system level design of a real-time fire observation system in the context of a smart satellite mission for detecting and monitoring natural disasters. The proposed system is built upon flight tested field programmable gate arrays based HPC-I technology, and would be capable of producing useful information about natural disasters directly broadcasted to interested parties within rapid timeframes. The algorithms for onboard real-time detection of direction, intensity, and location of fires are discussed, and reliable algorithms for detecting and verifying these fires using smoke plume detection are presented. Further work is described including fire-front analysis and the tracking of fire movement.