CREDIT: SPACEX
Juliet Rothenberg knows firsthand the fear and uncertainty people experience when facing devastating wildfires. When, four years ago, her California neighbourhood was evacuated she and her family spent the next few hours looking at satellite imagery for reassurance and answers. But none came.
Juliet, who is the Product Director of Climate AI work at Google Research, faced the same challenge as countless researchers, scientists and firefighters: poor data and a critical gap in existing wildfire detection.
Current satellite imagery used for firefighting is only available at low resolution or is updated only a few times each day. This makes it difficult to detect serious fires until they have grown as large as a football field.
“ We had no idea if our neighbourhood was safe,” says Juliet.“ All we received was updated satellite imagery every 12 hours, while throughout the Bay Area, the sky was red and full of smoke.”
Google Research using AI to prevent devastation In early March 2025, Juliet stood with her Google Research colleagues at Vandenberg Space Force Base to watch the launch into orbit of a solution designed to tackle this challenge: FireSat.