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Full catalog/MCD14DL
MCD14DL·v6.1NRT·dataset

Where fires are burning right now (Terra and Aqua, 1 km)

MODIS/Aqua Terra Thermal Anomalies/Fire locations 1km FIRMS NRT (Vector data)
biosphere NASA LANCEMODIS Level 2 Text File
In plain English

What it measures. Point locations of active fires and other hot spots (like volcanoes), each marking the center of a roughly 1 km area flagged as containing one or more fires.

How it's made. Generated in near-real-time by NASA's FIRMS system from MODIS instrument scans on the Terra and Aqua satellites, delivered as map-ready vector files (text, shapefile, KML, web map).

How & where you'd use it. Widely used for fire management and emergency response, including near-real-time fire alerts, plus monitoring volcanoes and other heat sources.

What's measured

BIOSPHERE › ECOLOGICAL DYNAMICS › FIRE ECOLOGY › FIRE DYNAMICSLAND SURFACE › SURFACE RADIATIVE PROPERTIESLAND SURFACE › SURFACE THERMAL PROPERTIES › LAND SURFACE TEMPERATURE

Coverage & cadence

  • Time span2019-12-15 → ongoing
  • Measured byTerra (MODIS) · Aqua (MODIS)
  • Processing levelLevel 2
  • Spatial extent-180, -80, 180, 80
  • FormatsText File
  • StatusACTIVE

What you can do with it

  • Map vegetation, forests and biomass
  • Monitor ecosystem productivity and carbon
  • Support habitat and biodiversity studies
Official description

The MODIS/Aqua Terra Thermal Anomalies/Fire locations 1km FIRMS Near Real-Time (NRT) - Collection 61 processed by NASA's Land, Atmosphere Near real-time Capability for EOS (LANCE) Fire Information for Resource Management System (FIRMS), using swath products (MOD14/MYD14) rather than the tiled MOD14A1 and MYD14A1 products. The thermal anomalies / active fire represent the center of a 1km pixel that is flagged by the MODIS MOD14/MYD14 Fire and Thermal Anomalies algorithm (Giglio 2003) as containing one or more fires within the pixel. This is the most basic fire product in which active fires and other thermal anomalies, such as volcanoes, are identified. MCD14DL are available in the following formats: TXT, SHP, KML, WMS. These data are also provided through the LANCE FIRMS Fire Email Alerts. Please note only the TXT and SHP files contain all the attributes. Collection 61 data replaced Collection 6 (DOI:10.5067/FIRMS/MODIS/MCD14DL.NRT.006) in April 2021. The C61 processing does not contain any updates to the science algorithm; changes were made to improve the calibration approach in the generation of the Terra and Aqua MODIS Level 1B products.

Get the data

mcd14dl_access.py
import earthaccess
earthaccess.login(strategy="netrc")          # free Earthdata Login

results = earthaccess.search_data(
    short_name="MCD14DL",
    version="6.1NRT",
    bounding_box=(-122.5, 37.2, -121.8, 37.9),  # your area (W,S,E,N)
    temporal=("2024-01-01", "2024-12-31"),       # your dates
)
files = earthaccess.open(results)   # stream straight from LANCEMODIS
Browsing CMR needs no login. Downloading or streaming bytes needs a free Earthdata Login + the earthaccess package.