Climate change is making wildfires increasingly more devastating. Large forest fires were over 500%more frequent in the 2000s than in the 1970s, causing a 1,200% increase in acres burned. Current methods of detecting fires are slow. Humans stand in lookouts, pilots who happen to be flying over a fire report smoke (if the fire is large enough to be spotted), and people on the ground report fires when they become large enough and spread. This is a serious shortcoming because the larger the fire gets, the faster it spreads and the more difficult it is to contain. The central product of Instinct is a Wireless Sensor Network (WSN) dedicated to rapid wildfire detection and multi-purpose environmental monitoring. Since 85% of wildfires in a given year are caused by humans, the system can be deployed strategically in areas that are vulnerable (near human infrastructure or activity); The sensor units detect a wildfire within minutes of ignition. They continuously send data to a few node units, which then send the data over larger distances to the server. Pattern recognition software runs in real-time, ensuring that fires will be detected quickly and accurately. The modular system can be expanded for other applications.
