{"id":1952,"date":"2026-02-19T16:47:30","date_gmt":"2026-02-19T16:47:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp-productionenv-bjg9h2g2bgg5b8aa.southeastasia-01.azurewebsites.net\/news\/loft-orbital-and-smartsat-crc-partner-to-demonstrate-ai-satellite-wildfire-detection\/"},"modified":"2026-02-19T16:47:30","modified_gmt":"2026-02-19T16:47:30","slug":"loft-orbital-and-smartsat-crc-partner-to-demonstrate-ai-satellite-wildfire-detection","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/news\/loft-orbital-and-smartsat-crc-partner-to-demonstrate-ai-satellite-wildfire-detection\/","title":{"rendered":"Loft Orbital and SmartSat CRC Partner to Demonstrate AI Satellite Wildfire Detection"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Loft<\/p>\n

Loft<\/strong> <\/strong>announced it has signed a contract with the SmartSat Cooperative Research Centre (SmartSat CRC)<\/strong> to deploy a wildfire detection application to Loft\u2019s on-orbit satellites. The project will serve as a high-tech demonstration of near real-time, software-based wildfire detection from low Earth orbit.<\/p>\n

This mission is designed to validate the software\u2019s functionality and performance in the space environment, providing a critical proof-of-concept for low-latency early detection of small smoke signatures. The application uses hyperspectral signatures to identify and distinguish smoke from standard cloud cover or fog, allowing early detection of small fires that can build to large wildfire events.<\/p>\n

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Also Read: What is Satellite IoT?<\/h4>\n<\/div>\n

The collaboration will explore the potential operationalisation of the capability for emergency services, both by Australian and international wildfire management organisations, leveraging Loft\u2019s growing infrastructure of AI-enabled space assets.<\/p>\n

The project is a critical step toward potential future operational capability, aimed at proving advanced algorithms can successfully and effectively process data on-orbit, enabling low-latency alerts necessary for wildfire response to be automatically generated in space. Successfully demonstrating this capability on Loft\u2019s existing space infrastructure will provide a blueprint for potential future integration across Loft\u2019s growing satellite constellation.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis partnership with SmartSat CRC is an important step in proving how software-defined missions can advance vital Earth observation goals,\u201d said Mack Koepke<\/strong>, Senior VP of Business Development at Loft<\/strong>. \u201cBy testing this application on our satellite platform, we are establishing the technical foundation required to provide low-latency insights to emergency organisations on a global scale.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Also Read: How does Satellite data help in monitoring climate change?<\/h4>\n<\/div>\n

The project has already garnered significant interest from wildfire-fighting agencies in Australia, who are looking toward space-based technology to enhance early detection efforts. As a project funded by the Australian Government through the SmartSat CRC, the demonstration highlights the growing collaboration between international space infrastructure providers and sovereign research initiatives.<\/p>\n

\u201cSmartSat\u2019s focus for this collaboration is on developing sovereign space technologies that address Australia\u2019s unique environmental challenges,\u201d said Professor Andy Koronios<\/strong>, CEO of SmartSat CRC<\/strong>. \u201cThis demonstration onboard Loft\u2019s AI-enabled infrastructure is a vital step in our research. It allows us to refine our detection models and prove the technical feasibility of generating low-latency alerts, which will be crucial to deliver a fully operational service for fire agencies and emergency services.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Loft announced it has signed a contract with the SmartSat Cooperative Research Centre (SmartSat CRC) to deploy a wildfire detection application to Loft\u2019s on-orbit satellites. The project will serve as a high-tech demonstration of near real-time, software-based wildfire detection from low Earth orbit. This mission is designed to validate the software\u2019s functionality and performance in the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[69,26,20,107],"class_list":["post-1952","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","tag-deployers","tag-ground","tag-satellite","tag-satellite-deployers"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1952"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1952"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1952\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1952"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1952"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1952"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}