Satellite Fire Detection
Near-real-time thermal anomalies detected by the VIIRS instrument, published by NASA's Fire Information for Resource Management System. Large or unusual fire activity can reveal wildfires, industrial incidents or conflict-related burning.
Current reading
Connection required. No reading is available until collection is authorised.
Global
- Collector availability
- Live
- Collection freshness
- Last successful collection .
Historical comparison
No history is available until the connection is authorised.
Interpretation
No statistical assessment is available before collection begins.
- Wildfire outbreaks
- Agricultural burning
- Industrial fires
Not established. Source-reported severity, statistical deviation and real-world risk are different questions. This reading does not independently support a hypothesis about intent or cause.
Evidence and limitations
- Cadence and latency
- Collection is scheduled every 30 minutes. Collection cadence is not source latency; no measured end-to-end latency is provided here. Source publication and revisions can delay what is visible.
- Gas flares
- Hot industrial surfaces
- Seasonal agricultural burning
- Cloud cover hides fires.
- Thermal anomalies include gas flares, volcanoes and industrial heat sources.
- Satellite overpass timing creates gaps.
Technical detail
- Measurement definition
- Each observation is one VIIRS detection; the value is fire radiative power (MW).
- Raw metric
- detections
- Method
- Requires a free FIRMS MAP_KEY stored as a server-side secret (FIRMS_MAP_KEY). Once configured, the connector stores high-confidence detections from the last 24 hours, keyed by satellite, time and location.
- Stored observations
- 1,413
Recent collection runs
- · success · 1413 stored
- · success · 1413 stored
- · success · 1413 stored
- · success · 1413 stored
- · success · 1413 stored
- · success · 1383 stored
- · success · 1383 stored
- · success · 1383 stored
- · success · 1223 stored
- · success · 1223 stored
- · success · 1223 stored
- · not_configured · 0 stored · Credentials not configured
How this works
We read NASA FIRMS satellite fire detections (VIIRS) every 30 minutes and keep high-confidence detections from the last 24 hours. Each detection is a hot spot seen from orbit, stored by satellite, time and position.
The number we watch is how many detections are in the last 24 hours at each collection. "Normal" is that count at the same hour of the day on earlier days (at least 5), because satellites pass over at set times.
Limits: cloud and smoke hide fires; one large fire shows as many hot spots; farm burning and gas flares are counted too. Fire seasons raise counts for months.
FAQ
- Is each dot one fire?
- No. Each dot is a satellite pixel that was hot. A large fire produces many dots.
- Why can the count jump suddenly?
- A new satellite pass has arrived. That is why we compare like hours with like hours.