A hotspot is none but a thermal anomaly (usually a heat source) that under certain circumstances can prevent the risk of a fire starting. It is calculated from the analysis of the combination of different infrared bands performed by an instrument on board fire-detection satellites.
The hotspot is the smallest unit of what we call a cluster. In its very simplest form, it is basically the detection performed by one of our integrated satellites and it has multiple information related to it such as:
Specific Details that include a timely and practical overview of the information available to understand the origins or triggers of the detection
Acquisition time: When a satellite takes the image and stores it
Detection time: When a satellite downlinks the information to either a ground or a space station for further processing
Weather at acquisition time
Visible images available
Scientific data that provides information about the intensity of the heat source
LEO satellite passes that have confirmed the hotspot event
Hotspots differentiate thanks to their sizes:
Size: Hotspots have a direct relationship with the resolution of the instrument that detects them. The rule behind this logic is very simple, the smaller the hotspot is the more accurate it is.
As you might have already noticed, the acronyms LEO and GEO appear quite often. Let’s talk about the meaning of these words, to understand it better, please take a look at the following figure:
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