The Idaho Department of Lands, which handles fires primarily on state-managed endowment land, began a partnership in August with OroraTech, a German company that uses satellites and thermal imaging technology to identify new fires and predict possible spread. “We are continuously looking for innovative ways of rapidly detecting and reporting the start of a wildfire.”In its news release, OroraTech noted that Idaho is the first state to implement wildfire satellite detection on a statewide level. OroraTech said its satellite monitoring is accurate regardless of weather, cloud cover, time of day or other potential obstacles that could interfere with other methods of observing fire activity. Satellite fire detection technology has become more common in recent years, and several companies offer monitoring solutions like OroraTech. Government agencies including NASA, also use the technology and have been developing their own satellite monitoring for wildfires.