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PG&E using satellite technology in time for 2019 fire season


KRCR Photo, air tanker over Happy Valley area during the 2018 fire season
KRCR Photo, air tanker over Happy Valley area during the 2018 fire season
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Pacific Gas and Electric Company (PG&E) is using first of its kind satellite technology with the goal of being the first to know when a wildfire sparks.

With the 2019 fire season underway, PG&E has launched their wildfire tracking system, using heat sensored satellite technology to better track wildfires.

According to the utility company's spokesperson, Paul Moreno, PG&E has devoted several years of testing and development to incorporate the wildfire detection and alert system. Just as Cal Fire and people who live in California have had to adapt to the "new normal" of devastating wildfires, so have they.

"It’s all about safety, keeping our customers in our community safe," Moreno said. "We’ve entered a new age for wildfires in California. We’ve had many years of drought and very long fire seasons over very long periods of no precipitation that have created some very dangerous fire conditions in California so we want to be able to utilize whatever tools we have available to us to help us prevent and help us identify early on any wildfires so they can be stopped."

In many cases the satellite system is expected to provide an early, if not the first, indication of an incident.

According to PG&E, it works by incorporating data from two new GOES satellites, as well as three polar orbiting satellites, to provide PG&E with advanced warning of potential new fires. The satellites are operated by the United States' National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA)'s National Environmental Satellite, Data, and Information Service division. The satellite images are sent to PG&E's operation center in San Francisco, which during the fire season is open 24/7.

"We’re expecting the satellite technology through it’s special algorithms and abilities to pre-identify or early on identify wildfires. It’ll give us some advance warning about wildfires in the area and then we can use other technologies such as high definition cameras to verify fire conditions and of course will be sharing information with fire agencies such as Cal Fire so they can utilize the data as well," Moreno explained.

The technology uses a high resolution image, pixels represent any fire detection and color coding is used based on to the time of the last detection and size. The satellite additionally shows existing fire perimeters, Cal Fire incidents and detections from other satellites.

Along with the two GOES satellites, PG&E has seven planes which are contracted to patrol during late afternoon hours until evening when wildfires are most likely to begin.

Those routes include:

  • Redding to Auburn in the Northern Sierra
  • Auburn to Sonora in the Central Sierra
  • Sonora to Porterville in the Southern Sierra
  • Redding to Humboldt to Lake County
  • Vacaville to Solvang near the coast
  • Redding to Hoopa to McArthur (Siskiyou County and northeastern Shasta County)
  • Mendocino County

By the end of 2019, PG&E plans to have at least 600 weather stations and 100 high-definition cameras in high fire-threat areas. According to PG&E, these new installations are one of the many additional precautionary measures the company is implementing following the 2017 and 2018 wildfires to further reduce wildfire risks.


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