Until recently, natural resource managers have faced considerable challenges in obtaining timely satellite-derived information on vegetation fires that are burning within and around their management area.
To be of most value, protected area managers require fire information to be delivered while fires are still burning, with minimal file sizes and in easy-to-use formats. GFIMS addresses these issues by delivering global near real-time fire information to users to support fire managers around the World.
Information on vegetation fires is important for many different applications, from policy formulation to strategic land management, from detection and early warning, deployment of assets for fire suppression, follow up restoration planning, strategy development for preparedness and prevention, to ecological monitoring, from modelling fire emissions to validating fire risk maps, all from global to local scale.
GFIMS delivers active fires detected using the MODIS active fire locations processed by the MODIS Rapid Response System, which uses the standard MODIS MOD14/MYD14 Fire and Thermal Anomalies Product. Each active fire location represents the center of a 1 km pixel that is flagged by the algorithm as containing a fire within the pixel. In the near future GFIMS will also provide burned area data.
GFIMS also offers monthly MODIS Burned Area (MCD45) images through Web Fire Mapper to natural resource managers. Knowledge of the timing and the land area affected by fire is important to natural resource managers so that they may understand the impact of fire on vegetation, fauna and humans. The MODIS Burned area images are provided by the MODIS Fire Team.
More information on MODIS (Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer) sensors, present on-board NASA's EOS Terra and Aqua satellites, is available on NASA MODIS website.
