Cyprus Institute's Innovative Fire Detection System

The Cyprus Institute has developed an innovative pilot system for fire detection, using satellite data and its supercomputer. This system identified the deadly fire in mountainous Limassol from the outset.

According to Stavros Malas, President of the Cyprus Institute, the system initially recorded the first source of smoke and then tracked the fire's path with precise timing. "The exact location of the fire was identified, as well as the time. It was between 13:22 and 13:32, the first period when the system detected smoke, and after the first 10 minutes, it also detected a thermal anomaly, obviously fire. The time agrees with the data held by the fire service," he stated.

The system uses data from a geostationary satellite, with images sent every 10 minutes and analyzed by the CyI's supercomputing system. It detects smoke sources within a 1 square kilometer radius and fire sources within a 2 square kilometer radius.

The system will be made available to the authorities of the republic and is being further developed. Additionally, the Cyprus Institute uses unmanned aerial vehicles (drones) for fire prevention patrols in cooperation with the forestry department.