Amid an outbreak of recent wildfires in California, Google announced a commitment to spend $13 million to improve satellite imaging to help track and detect wildfires, starting as early as next year.

FireSat, a constellation of more than 50 satellites, will be able to detect wildfires as small as the size of a classroom, about 16 by 16 feet, and the first satellite will launch in early 2025, the media giant announced Monday. Firefighting authorities currently rely on satellite imagery that detects wildfires but only when they reach about the size of a football field, or more than an acre.

“We realized that if we can pair satellites with machine learning and artificial intelligence, it was the perfect platform to generate real-time operational intelligence on fires,” Christopher Van Arsdale, who leads the Google Research Climate & Energy group and is chairman of the Earth Fire Alliance, said in a video announcement.

The initiative is being led by the Earth Fire Alliance, a nonprofit that was launched in May to create FireSat and develop wildfire datasets.

Satellite images currently might confuse clouds or a smokestack for fires, Van Arsdale said. Using machine learning, a team at Google built a camera that optimized the technology for fire detection, and the team tested it over controlled burn areas.

The constellation of satellites will be able to provide updated satellite imagery to firefighters every 20 minutes to help them put out fires before they become large and destructive.

“In addition to supporting emergency response efforts, FireSat’s data will be used to create a global historical record of fire spread, helping Google and scientists to better model and understand wildfire behavior and spread,” the company said. Google said the project is part of the company’s effort to help communities address the effects of climate change.

California officials already have moved toward using AI to better track wildfires. The California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection partnered with UC San Diego to develop a new AI pilot project that maintains 1,039 high-definition cameras on towers and mountain peaks throughout the state to keep an eye out for smoke and other anomalies and alerts Cal Fire.

Jason Forthhofer, a research mechanical engineer with the U.S. Forest Service, said the FireSat project also will help to collect data to better train firefighters on how to interact with wildfires and understand how they are affected by changing conditions.

“We’ll be able to teach firefighters what dryness does to a fire, or wind, or a change in fuel type, because we have seen so many firefighters die on fires when they don’t anticipate what the fire‘s going to do,” he said.

Southern California is enduring an extremely active wildfire season, with three fast-moving blazes burning more than 100,000 acres and forcing thousands to evacuate, as well as destroying dozens of structures.

2024 Los Angeles Times. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.

The union for striking Boeing workers said Tuesday the aviation giant was not “taking mediation seriously,” after some 33,000 US employees walked out last week over a contract dispute, effectively shutting down two Seattle-area plants.

“We will not mince words—after a full day of mediation, we are frustrated,” said a statement from the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers (IAM), after its representatives met with Boeing negotiators.

“The company was not prepared and was unwilling to address the issues you’ve made clear are essential for ending this strike: Wages and Pension. The company doesn’t seem to be taking mediation seriously,” the statement said.

It added that mediation between the union and Boeing would continue on Wednesday.

“Today, we ask Boeing not to miss the opportunity to recognize its workers by presenting a contract that can resolve this labor dispute so we can get back to building and delivering Boeing aircraft,” said the union statement.

Members of the IAM District 751 have been picketing 24 hours a day following the walkout early Friday morning, shuttering factories in Renton and Everett that assemble the 737 MAX and 777.

Boeing had been hopeful about averting a strike after reaching a preliminary deal with IAM leadership on September 8 that included a 25 percent general wage increase over four years, reduced mandatory overtime and a pledge to build the next new airplane in the Puget Sound region.

But rank-and-file workers blasted the deal as insufficient, dismissing the 25 percent figure as misleading and inadequate in light of the agreement’s elimination of an annual bonus for workers.

Workers also were displeased with other elements of the agreement, including its failure to reinstate pensions. And they said the pledge on building the new airplane in the Puget Sound needed to be strengthened beyond the four-year lifespan of the contract.

Underlying the fury has been a more than decade-long period of essentially stagnant wages at a time when consumer inflation has stressed budgets.

© 2024 AFP

An EU court on Wednesday largely upheld an antitrust fine against US chipmaking giant Qualcomm but reduced the penalty slightly to 238.7 million euros ($265 million).

The European Union hit Qualcomm with a fine of 242 million euros in 2019 after it found the company had engaged in “predatory pricing” in a bid to eliminate a competitor.

The dispute dates back to 2009 when British company Icera—since acquired by chip titan Nvidia—accused Qualcomm of anti-competitive practices.

The Luxembourg-based General Court rejected Qualcomm’s appeal against the fine, noting it had made a “detailed examination of all the pleas” it put forward.

But the judge made an “exception of a plea concerning the calculation of the amount of the fine, which it finds to be well founded in part”.

The company reiterated Wednesday that it had complied with EU antitrust law.

“Qualcomm respectfully disagrees with the judgment and the commission’s decision and believes that we have always remained in compliance with European competition law,” the company said in a statement.

© 2024 AFP