NASA's Aqua, Terra, and Aura satellite constellation has been monitoring the planet for decades. Aqua, launched in 2002, was designed to study the water cycle, but its MODIS instrument became a key tool for detecting wildfires. However, the growing accumulation of orbital debris puts its integrity and the continuity of this critical data at risk.
MODIS: an unplanned but effective fire detector 🌍
The MODIS spectroradiometer aboard Aqua and Terra captures images in 36 spectral bands. Although its primary goal was to measure surface temperature and humidity, its sensitivity to thermal infrared allows it to identify hot spots with high precision. NASA uses this data to alert about active fires in real time. The threat of collisions with orbital fragments could interrupt this service, affecting emergency agencies and forest management.
The karma of debris: we lose sight of the forest for the rocket remnants 🚀
It is ironic that while humanity fills space with remnants of rockets and dead satellites, the very devices that alert us that the forest is burning are in danger. Soon, we may have to choose between dodging a Soviet bolt from 1965 or losing track of a fire in California. NASA suggests that the solution lies in cleaning up low Earth orbit, but in the meantime, the sky looks more like a landfill than a laboratory.