To keep its air clean, U.S. is sending wildfire-detection data to Canada

Satellite data will help Canada more quickly identify and suppress new fires, U.S. says.

The U.S. Department of Defence began sending real-time satellite and sensor data to Canadian authorities on Friday, technology it said would help more quickly identify new fires as Canada endures one of its most destructive early wildfire seasons.

The U.S. has already dispatched more than 600 firefighters to Canada to help battle the flames. U.S. President Joe Biden, who has linked wildfires to climate change, said U.S. officials were monitoring air quality and aviation delays.

“Starting today, DOD personnel will analyze and share real-time data derived from U.S. satellites and sensors and convey it via a co-operative agreement between the U.S. National Interagency Fire Center and the Canadian Interagency Forest Fire Centre,” U.S. National Security Council spokesperson Adam Hodge said in a statement.

Hodge’s statement said the move was made “in order to do everything possible to reduce the degradation of air quality in American communities caused by smoke from wildfires burning in Canada.”

The U.S. will send information from a Pentagon program that the Biden administration first used for U.S. fire detection and suppression in 2021 “and which has already proven very effective,” Hodge said.

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He said the Biden administration was also deploying additional U.S. Department of the Interior (DOI), USDA Forest Service (USFS), and state wildland firefighting personnel and equipment to Canada.

Canada is suffering through its most destructive start to wildfire season, with about 48,000 square kilometres already burned, an area larger than the Netherlands.