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q55·beginner

Where is the wildfire burning right now?

firehazards Datasets: 3 5–15 min
◇ Real events · NASA Disasters / VEDA

Analysis-ready products for actual events that this question maps to — open each in the catalog, or browse them on the NASA Disasters Portal.

Fire Heat Intensity, 2025 Eaton and Palisades Fires
la-fires-frp · VEDA
Thomas Fire Peak Burning Intensity (2017)
frp-max-thomasfire · VEDA
2021 Caldor Fire: How the Fire Spread (California)
caldor-fire-behavior · VEDA
▶ Find the data for your area

Draw a rectangle to pick your area of interest, then see what NASA data covers it (live, here in your browser) or download a ready-to-run notebook with your AOI pre-filled. The notebook runs in any Python environment — it needs a free Earthdata Login to fetch the data.

Current AOI: -122, 39.6 → -121.2, 40.1 (Northern California)

During an active fire the question is immediate: *where is it burning, right now?* Satellites detect the heat itself — a pixel far hotter than its surroundings is a fire — and deliver it within hours through **FIRMS**.

During an active fire the question is immediate: where is it burning, right now? Satellites detect the heat itself — a pixel far hotter than its surroundings is a fire — and deliver it within hours through FIRMS.

What you can answer

  • Active fire locations, near-real-time. VIIRS and MODIS flag thermal anomalies — pixels whose mid-infrared brightness spikes above the background. FIRMS publishes them within ~3 hours, several times a day.
  • Fire intensity — Fire Radiative Power (FRP) estimates how much energy a detection is releasing.
  • Spread over time — stacking successive overpasses shows the fire’s advance.

What you can NOT answer (be careful)

  • Small or cool fires — a fire smaller than the pixel, or under cloud/thick smoke, can be missed.
  • Exact perimeter — detections are points on a coarse grid, not a precise boundary; for the burned footprint use burn severity (dNBR) afterward.
  • False positives — gas flares, volcanoes and hot industrial sites also trip thermal detectors; check context.

How you’d approach it

Pull FIRMS detections for your AOI and time window, filter by confidence, and plot them with FRP for intensity. This is the fastest first-look in a fire response — minutes, no heavy processing. Supports the Respond phase of the NASA Disasters program.

⚲ How a scientist answers this
Parameters
FIRMS near-real-time active-fire / thermal-anomaly detections from VIIRS 375 m (and MODIS 1 km), each a point with a confidence flag and Fire Radiative Power (FRP, MW); VIIRS I-band mid-infrared brightness temperature is the underlying signal. Detection means a pixel's MIR brightness spikes far above its local background.
Method
Pull FIRMS detections for the AOI and time window, filter by confidence, plot points colored by FRP for intensity, and stack successive overpasses to trace the fire's advance — a fast first-look with no heavy processing.
Validation
Screen for false positives (gas flares, volcanoes, hot industrial sites) using context, note that small, cool, or cloud/smoke-obscured fires are missed, and treat detections as coarse points, not a precise perimeter (use dNBR afterward for the burned footprint).
In plain EnglishSatellites spot the heat itself — any pixel much hotter than its surroundings is flagged as fire within a few hours — so you can see where it's burning right now.

Make it yours → Set your AOI and time window, and adjust the confidence and FRP filters to focus on stronger detections.

Datasets used

FIRMS
Where fires are burning right now
FIRMS (Fire Information for Resource Management System)
LANCE/FIRMS (cross-DAAC, NASA Goddard hosted) · 1 km (MODIS) / 375 m (VIIRS)
FIRMS
Where fires are burning right now
FIRMS (Fire Information for Resource Management System)
LANCE/FIRMS (cross-DAAC, NASA Goddard hosted) · 1 km (MODIS) / 375 m (VIIRS)