Alphabet‘s (NASDAQ: GOOG)(NASDAQ: GOOGL) major Google subsidiary is helping – in its own way – fight the wildfires that are currently ravaging California. On Thursday, Google announced in an official blog post written by Vice President of Engineering and Crisis Response global lead Yossi Matias that it has added features to its Maps and Search services to help users track the location and severity of fires.
The new features were launched on Thursday.
This information is presented in graphical form in Google Maps, with borders in red. The data comes from the GOES fleet of National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration satellites, and Google Earth analytics systems then process it. In the post, Matias said that this combination delivers near real-time accuracy, with the data refreshing approximately once per hour.
Image Source: Getty Images.
“In moments like a growing wildfire, knowing exactly where a lodge is headed and how to prevent it is critical,” Matias wrote. “Using satellite data to create a boundary map for a wildfire, people will now see the approximate size and location directly on their phone or desktop.”
The move comes as Google and the home state of Google and California deal with an unusual number of fires, some not far from the two headquarters of the two businesses in the city of Mountain View. More than 90 such fires have been reported, and evacuations from nearby areas have begun.
During the summer months, many regions of California are particularly susceptible to wildfires due to the combination of dry terrain and high heat. Record-breaking temperatures this summer have exacerbated the risk, as have a series of recent lightning strikes.
Both classes of the Alphabet shares rose just over 2% on Thursday, reducing profits due to the large indexes.
