Maroc - TIMBERBIZ.COM.AU - A La Une - 04/Sep 00:10

AI integrates weather forecasting into bushfire detection

As Australia enters the summer bushfire season, Pano AI, a pioneer in early bushfire detection technology, has announced a major enhancement to its platform with the introduction of advanced weather forecasting data integration. Source: Timberbiz Launched yesterday in Sydney at the AFAC 24 Conference, Australia’s largest emergency management conference and exhibition, the new Weather Map Layers feature enables users to seamlessly track forecasted weather conditions in conjunction with real time fire threats, all in one platform. Arvind Satyam, Co-Founder and Chief Commercial Officer of Pano AI, underscored the importance of having multiple data sources to enable faster and more informed response capabilities. “By providing visibility into temperature, humidity, wind speed, wind gusts and wind direction, Pano AI’s Weather Map Layers offers greater situational awareness, significantly improves decision-making during critical moments and allows for more tactical and appropriately scaled responses to fire risks.” Trained on hundreds of millions of images of landscapes across a variety of environments, Pano AI utilises ultra-high resolution cameras, satellites and artificial intelligence to help fire responders to swiftly identify and extinguish new ignitions before they become a threat. Last summer 33 fire events were averted in the Green Triangle due to Australia’s largest network of smoke detection cameras with plans progressing to expand the infrastructure to cover more blackspot areas for future seasons. The Green Triangle Fire Alliance’s (GTFA) network of 14 cameras, which provide a 360-degree scan of the landscape using AI technology, delivered 24-hour seven day a week observation across 1.3 million hectares of landscape, covering 10 local government areas. Operated by AI specialists Pano AI Pty Ltd, the cameras acted as the first point of detection before the human eye on several occasions and positively identified 24 planned fuel reduction burns for a total of 57 detections for the season. This was in addition to the detection of thousands of private permit burns late in the season. Head of Australia GTM Pano AI, Andrew Prolov, highlighted how weather information is an essential component of understanding bushfire risk. “We are committed to providing the most effective early detection technology to help identify bushfire risks and to prevent fires from escalating out of control,” Mr Prolov said. “The first few minutes are vital in preventing a bushfire from escalating out of control. While we can’t prevent fires from starting, our technology now offers the added capability to overlay important weather data to better understand the conditions in the regions that we are monitoring and to be aware of the changing weather landscape once a fire has started.” Key features of Pano AI’s Weather Map Layers integration: • Comprehensive Weather Data: Users can overlay essential weather data onto the Pano AI interactive map, including temperature, humidity, wind speed, wind gusts, and a dynamic wind particle animation representing wind speed and direction. • Hourly Updates: At the top of each hour, Weather Map Layers will display the forecast for the current hour with a data resolution of 28km. This ensures users have the most current information when responding to fire threats. • Enhanced Fire Management: Responders can tailor their responses to fire risks more effectively by using weather forecasting data to predict how a fire might behave based on weather conditions, enabling more informed and strategic decision-making. Pano AI is deployed across five states of Australia, and now has a presence in New South Wales, Victoria, South Australia, Queensland and Tasmania with 28 separate stations covering over 2 million hectares including forestry, farmland and renewable energy zones.