Argentinian climate technology company Satellites on Fire is exploring projects in Indonesia to help detect wildfires before they spread, as the country battles blazes that have sent toxic haze across Southeast Asia.
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The fires have exposed the need for earlier warnings to help authorities respond before blazes become harder to contain. Hundreds of thousands of hectares have burned, while drifting smoke has closed schools in Malaysia and degraded air quality as far away as the Philippines and Singapore.
“We’re already in conversations with organisations in Indonesia about future projects,” Franco Rodríguez Viau, chief executive and co-founder of Satellites on Fire, told Eco-Business.
More than 60,000 personnel have been mobilised to fight fires across six Indonesian provinces, while four men battling a blaze at Bromo Tengger Semeru National Park in East Java were killed last week.
The company, named a 2026 Earthshot Prize finalist under its Clean Our Air category, uses artificial intelligence (AI) to analyse thermal satellite imagery alongside weather, lightning, cameras and drone feeds.
Franco Rodríguez Viau, chief executive and co-founder of Satellites on Fire, says faster detection can give responders crucial time to contain a blaze before it escalates into a larger emergency. Image: Earthshot Prize
The Earthshot Prize, founded by HRH Prince William of the British royal family and inspired by US President John F Kennedy’s 1962 “moonshot” speech, is a global environmental prize that seeks to find and scale solutions to protect and restore the planet by 2030.
The Satellites on Fire platform detects potential fires, predicts how they could spread and sends alerts directly to responders through channels including WhatsApp and SMS.
Across its deployments, the company says it detects fires an average of 35 minutes faster than NASA’s public system. It currently monitors 92 million hectares across 21 countries and five continents and serves more than 70,000 users.
That extra time can determine whether a blaze requires a small crew or escalates into a major emergency, Rodríguez Viau underscored.
“Something we learned early on is that many of the firefighters we work with are not tech people, and in the middle of an emergency nobody has time to open a dashboard,” he explained. “So we started sending alerts by WhatsApp or SMS, with a Google Maps link that takes the crew straight to the fire.”
At one national park in Argentina, Satellites on Fire detected a blaze 17 minutes after it began, while NASA’s system detected it around two hours later, according to the company. Satellites on Fire said it assisted with more than 2,000 wildfires in 2025 alone, while Argentina’s national Firefighters Council has adopted the platform across 70 fire stations.
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You can’t fight a fire if you don’t know it’s started, so early detection is key to saving lives and protecting our environment. Early detection matters a lot [in Indonesia], because once a fire reaches the peat it’s extremely hard to put out.
Franco Rodríguez Viau, Co-founder, Satellites on Fire
Indonesia’s peatland challenge
The stakes are particularly high in Indonesia, where this year’s severe El Niño conditions have brought additional heat and dryness and accelerated the spread of fires during the April to October dry season.
Estimates of the area burned vary. Environmental group Auriga has reported more than 637,000 hectares burned between January and August, while independent monitoring platform Nusantara Atlas estimates the figure at close to 900,000 hectares.
Many of the fires are concentrated in Sumatra and Borneo, where degraded peatlands can continue burning underground long after surface flames disappear.
Of Indonesia’s estimated 24.2 million hectares of peatland, around 16.4 million hectares are degraded and vulnerable to fire, according to Indonesian peatland watchdog Pantau Gambut. Large areas have been drained for plantations and agriculture through canal networks stretching an estimated 285,000 kilometres.
For early-detection technology, peat presents an important limitation.
“Early detection matters a lot [in Indonesia], because once a fire reaches the peat it’s extremely hard to put out, and it keeps releasing smoke and carbon for as long as it burns,” Rodríguez Viau said.
Peatland fires are especially difficult to extinguish because dried peat can smoulder beneath the surface for weeks or months, retaining embers that may reignite even after surface flames disappear, according to experts at IPB University in Bogor, Indonesia. Wildfire control is further complicated by falling water tables and scarce water supplies, which leave peat drier and more flammable.
“The window that really counts is the first hours, while the fire is still on the surface. That’s where satellite detection can help the most, especially in places where there’s nobody around to report a fire,” he noted.
The platform says it detects wildfires an average of 35 minutes faster than NASA’s public system, giving responders more time to verify and reach emerging fires. Image: Earthshot Prize
However, satellites can also struggle to detect very small fires; thick clouds and smoke can obscure the surface, and underground peat fires may emit too little heat to register clearly. Satellites on Fire therefore combines satellite information with cameras, drones and ground sensors rather than depending on a single data source.
Rodríguez Viau acknowledged that such technology cannot address the underlying drivers of Indonesia’s fires, which include peatland drainage, land clearing, agricultural practices and weak enforcement.
“We can’t rewet peat, [or] change how land is cleared or make sure the law is enforced. Those decisions belong to governments, companies and communities,” he said.
The distinction is particularly relevant as Indonesia’s fires again become a regional public health problem. Malaysia has ordered schools to close across several states and federal territories, while sporting events have been cancelled. Singapore has also reported deteriorating air quality, with both countries offering assistance to Indonesia.
Wildfire smoke can travel thousands of kilometres, carrying fine particulate matter, or PM2.5, far beyond the source of a fire. Wildfire smoke is one of the world’s fastest-growing sources of fine-particle pollution.
Alerts from Satellites on Fire can be sent through WhatsApp and SMS with location details and Google Maps links, allowing crews to act without relying on a separate dashboard during emergencies. Image: Earthshot Prize
From school project to global platform
Satellites on Fire began in 2020, after wildfires in Córdoba, Argentina destroyed the homes of family friends of Rodríguez Viau, who was then 16.
“I remember seeing wildfires up close where friends of my family lived, as the sky turned black with smoke and I felt powerless to help,” he related.
He began developing a response with classmates Joaquín Chamo and Ulises López Pacholczak, who later became his co-founders.
“Our first prototype turned out to be useless to the national parks we showed it to, and that’s where we learned to listen before building,” Rodríguez Viau said.
Satellites on Fire currently monitors 92 million hectares across 21 countries and five continents, with more than 70,000 users on its platform. Image: Earthshot Prize
“You can’t fight a fire if you don’t know it’s started, so early detection is key to saving lives and protecting our environment.”
Six years later, the company is competing for the Earthshot Prize, with five winners to be announced in Mumbai in November. By 2030, it aims to expand coverage nearly fivefold to 446 million hectares.
Rodríguez Viau said the company’s biggest obstacle is increasingly not detecting fires, but ensuring that responders, governments and other organisations incorporate those warnings into their operations.
“What concerns us more is adoption,” he said. “The technology works, so the real challenge is distribution, reaching the organisations that protect land and helping our alerts become part of how they respond. Even a perfect alert doesn’t help if it’s ignored.”
