Fire Information for Resource Management System (FIRMS) is a free web mapping platform offered by NASA as part of its Earth Science Data Systems (ESDS) Program. It displays active fire locations in near real-time overlaid on a map.[1][2]
 Screenshot of NASA FIRMS in a web browser | |
Type of site | Web mapping |
|---|---|
| Owner | NASA |
| URL | https://www.earthdata.nasa.gov/firms |
| Commercial | No |
| Registration | No |
| Launched | January 2021 |
| Current status | Active |
While created to monitor wildfires,[1] it has also been used to report on fires due to military conflicts such as the Russian invasion of Ukraine[3] and the Tigray war.[4]
Specifications
editSatellites
editThe data is collected via satellites in sun-synchronous orbit, making each satellite pass over the same location on Earth on the same time every day. Each satellite crosses equator from North to South twelve times a day thus also from South to North twelve times a day.
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Aqua's ascending orbital path as of 2021 -
Aqua's descending orbital path as of 2021 -
NOAA-20's descending orbital path
Instruments
editThe data is collected via MODIS (on board Terra and Aqua) and VIIRS (on board Suomi NPP, NOAA-20 and NOAA-21) satellite instruments.[5] The spatial resolution of the MODIS instrument is 1 km × 1 km and 375 m × 375 m for VIIRS. This sets a lower limit on how accurately fires can be placed and whether a detection stems from a single larger or multiple smaller fires.[4]
Website
editThe data collected by FIRMS are presented as a free web mapping service, with the active fire locations if any overlaid on a map.[1] The detections are displayed on top of a static background layer and each visualized detection is clickable to display its data, such as detection time, coordinates, satellite and instrument. The default static background layer consists of higher resolution satellite imagery with terrain details called Blue Marble in reference to The Blue Marble.
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The 2024 Børsen fire detected at 11:48 local time by Terra on its descending pass, overlaid in orange -
The Greenwich Meridian overlaid with latitude-longitude lines -
The FIRMS measurement tool calculates the length of a user defined sequence of connected line segments, here the isosceles right triangle of the Virgo interferometer with sides 3 km + 3 km + 3 √2 km ≈ 10.24 km -
The FIRMS measurement tool calculates the area of a user defined polygon, here the Toropets depot explosions -
The FIRMS measurement tool calculates the area of a self-intersecting polygon such that e.g. a crossed square has zero area
Development
editFIRMS was developed by the University of Maryland in 2007 with NASA funds and from 2010 to 2012 a version of it was run by the UN's FAO.[1]
On 31 January 2023 NASA entered into a Space Act agreement with GIS software company Esri. The purpose of the agreement is to further improve global access to NASA's geospatial data via Esri's ArcGIS software and via Open Geospatial Consortium data-formats.[6][7]
See also
editReferences
edit- ^ a b c d "About FIRMS". earthdata.nasa.gov. 8 April 2015. Retrieved 2024-09-22.
- ^ "FIRMS: Fire Information for Resource Management System". storymaps.arcgis.com. 2022-01-25. Retrieved 2024-09-22.
- ^ Burlaka, Oleksandr (2024-09-18). "Fire at a Russian missile depot". universemagazine.com. Retrieved 2024-09-22.
- ^ a b Gonzales, Carlos (2022-10-04). "Scorched Earth: Using NASA Fire Data to Monitor War Zones". Bellingcat. Retrieved 2024-09-22.
- ^ "Fire Information for Resource Management System (FIRMS)". toolkit.climate.gov. Retrieved 2024-09-22.
- ^ Blumenfeld, Josh (2023-01-31). "NASA/Esri Agreement Enhances Use of NASA Geospatial Data". earthdata.nasa.gov (Press release). Retrieved 2024-11-01.
- ^ "Esri Signs Space Act Agreement with NASA". Esri (Press release). 2023-01-31. Retrieved 2024-11-01.
External links
edit
Media related to FIRMS at Wikimedia Commons
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