FIRMS¶

Near-real-time global active fire detection dataset provided by NASA, based on satellite thermal anomaly observations for operational wildfire monitoring and hazard analysis.

Overview¶

FIRMS (Fire Information for Resource Management System) is a NASA-operated system that distributes active fire and thermal anomaly detections derived from satellite sensors, including MODIS and VIIRS. Each record corresponds to a time-stamped hotspot detection associated with a potential fire event.

FIRMS is widely used for operational wildfire monitoring, rapid situational awareness, and as event-level labels or targets in wildfire prediction pipelines when combined with meteorological and land-surface data.

Data Characteristics¶

Spatial coverage: Global
Spatial resolution: Sensor-dependent (e.g., ~375 m for VIIRS)
Temporal resolution: Near real time (multiple updates per day)
Data structure: Event-based point detections (not gridded tensors)
Data format: CSV, Shapefile, GeoJSON, KML
Coordinate system: Geographic latitude–longitude

Variables¶

Each FIRMS detection record typically includes:

Detection time and satellite overpass information
Geographic location (latitude and longitude)
Fire radiative power (FRP) or thermal anomaly indicators
Confidence or quality flags (sensor- and product-specific)

Typical Use Cases¶

Operational wildfire monitoring and early detection
Event labeling for supervised wildfire prediction models
Spatiotemporal analysis of fire occurrence and activity patterns
Integration with meteorological and fuel datasets for hazard modeling

Access¶

FIRMS data are publicly accessible through NASA Earthdata services:

Reference¶

Schroeder, W., Oliva, P., Giglio, L., & Csiszar, I. (2014). The New VIIRS 375 m active fire detection data product: Algorithm description and initial assessment. Remote Sensing of Environment, 143, 85–96. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.rse.2013.08.008