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Full catalog/MOD14A1
MOD14A1·v061·dataset

Where active fires are burning each day (Terra, 1 km)

MODIS/Terra Thermal Anomalies/Fire Daily L3 Global 1km SIN Grid V061
biosphere NASA LPCLOUD Level 3 active HDF-EOS2
In plain English

What it measures. A daily look at where fires are actively burning, mapped to roughly 1 km grid cells, packaged eight days at a time. It flags fire locations and includes how intensely each fire is radiating heat.

How it's made. Derived from the MODIS sensor on NASA's Terra satellite, processed into a daily gridded fire detection product.

How & where you'd use it. Used to spot wildfires, track fire seasons, and study where and how often land burns; useful for emergency response and for understanding fire's role in ecosystems.

What's measured

BIOSPHERE › ECOLOGICAL DYNAMICS › FIRE ECOLOGY › FIRE OCCURRENCELAND SURFACE › SURFACE THERMAL PROPERTIESLAND SURFACE › SURFACE THERMAL PROPERTIES › LAND SURFACE TEMPERATURELAND SURFACE › SURFACE THERMAL PROPERTIES › LAND SURFACE TEMPERATURE › THERMAL ANOMALIES

Coverage & cadence

  • Time span2000-02-18 → ongoing
  • Measured byTerra (MODIS)
  • Processing levelLevel 3
  • Spatial extent-180, -90, 180, 90
  • FormatsHDF-EOS2
  • 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 Terra Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) Thermal Anomalies and Fire Daily (MOD14A1) Version 6.1 data are generated every eight days at 1 kilometer (km) spatial resolution as a Level 3 product. MOD14A1 contains eight consecutive days of fire data conveniently packaged into a single file. The Science Dataset (SDS) layers include the fire mask, pixel quality indicators, maximum fire radiative power (MaxFRP), and the position of the fire pixel within the scan. Each layer consists of daily per pixel information for each of the eight days of data acquisition. Known Issues * For complete information about known issues please refer to the [MODIS/VIIRS Land Quality Assessment website](https://landweb.modaps.eosdis.nasa.gov/knownissue?sensor=MODIS&sat=Terra&as=61).

Get the data

mod14a1_access.py
import earthaccess
earthaccess.login(strategy="netrc")          # free Earthdata Login

results = earthaccess.search_data(
    short_name="MOD14A1",
    version="061",
    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 LPCLOUD
Browsing CMR needs no login. Downloading or streaming bytes needs a free Earthdata Login + the earthaccess package.