How cleanly wildfires are burning (VIIRS, NOAA-20, 750 m)

In plain English

What it measures. How cleanly wildfires are burning (their combustion efficiency), along with fire detections and the radiant heat fires give off, including smaller and cooler fires spotted at night.

How it's made. Produced from the VIIRS instrument on the NOAA-20 satellite in 6-minute orbit segments at 750 m resolution, using a night-aware fire-detection algorithm.

How & where you'd use it. Helps assess how completely fires are burning, which relates to smoke and emissions, and improves detection of faint or nighttime fires.

What's measured

BIOSPHERE › ECOLOGICAL DYNAMICS › FIRE ECOLOGY › FIRE OCCURRENCELAND SURFACE › SURFACE THERMAL PROPERTIES

Coverage & cadence

Time span2018-01-05 → ongoing
Measured byNOAA-20 (VIIRS)
Processing levelLevel 2
Spatial extent-180, -90, 180, 90
FormatsnetCDF-4
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 Visible Infrared Imaging Radiometer Suite (VIIRS) FIre Light Detection Algorithm-2 (FILDA-2) Modified Combustion Efficiency (MCE) Version 2 swath product (VJ147MOD) is produced in 6-minute orbit segments 750 meter (m) resolution from the VIIRS sensor aboard the NOAA-20 satellite. The VJ147MOD product takes advantage of the rich information that visible band observation conveys at night to assess fire combustion efficiency and enhance fire detection. It also utilizes improvements made in fire detection algorithms to detect smaller and cooler fires. The VJ147MOD product includes 85 layers containing fire detection and retrievals of Radiative Power (FRP), fire Visible Energy Fraction (VEF), and Modified Combustion Efficiency (MCE). Known Issues * Known issues can be found in Section 5 of the User Guide. * For complete information about known issues please refer to the [MODIS/VIIRS Land Quality Assessment website](https://landweb.modaps.eosdis.nasa.gov/knownissue?sensor=VIIRS&as=5200).

Get the data

vj147mod_access.py

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

results = earthaccess.search_data(
    short_name="VJ147MOD",
    version="002",
    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.

Official links

The LDOPE Land Product Quality Assessment website provides known issues, maneuvers, and product quality of the land products. VIEW RELATED INFORMATION
Earthdata Search allows users to search, discover, visualize, refine, and access NASA Earth Observation data. GET DATA
The technical information in the User's Guide enables users to interpret and use the data products. VIEW RELATED INFORMATION
The ATBD provides physical theory and mathematical procedures for the calculations used to produce the data products. VIEW RELATED INFORMATION
Validation at stage 3 has been achieved for the VIIRS Fire Light Detection Algorithm-2 product suite. VIEW RELATED INFORMATION