Boreal Forest Fire Observations and MODIS NDVI
NASA has released a series of new visualizations that show the locations of the millions of fires detected by key fire-monitoring instruments on NASA satellites over the last decade. This visualization shows fire observations made by the MODerate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) instruments on board the Terra and Aqua satellites in Europe and Asia from July 2002 through July 2011. "It's incredibly satisfying to see such a long record of fires visualized," said Chris Justice, a scientist from the University of Maryland who leads NASA's effort to use MODIS data to study the world's fires. "It's not only exciting visually, but what you see here is a very good representation of the data scientists use to understand the global distribution of fires and to determine where and how fires are responding to climate change and population growth."
More information on the Fire Information for Resource Management System (FIRMS) is available at https://earthdata.nasa.gov/earth-observation-data/near-real-time/firms.
This animation shows fires over NDVI in the Boreal region in Eurasia from July 2002 through July 2011. This still image is from August 15, 2006.
This video is also available on our YouTube channel.
Colortable showing MODIS fire pixels. The number colorized is MODIS MCD14ML T21 Brightness temperature minus the T31 Brightness temperature.
Colortable showing MODIS' 16 Day Composite NDVI
Active fires and vegetation index for July 15, 2002.
Active fires and vegetation index for September 15, 2002.
Active fires and vegetation index for December 15, 2002.
Active fires and vegetation index for March 15, 2003.
Active fires and vegetation index for July 15, 2003.
Active fires and vegetation index for September 15, 2003.
Active fires and vegetation index for December 15, 2003.
Active fires and vegetation index for March 15, 2004.
Active fires and vegetation index for July 15, 2004.
Active fires and vegetation index for September 15, 2004.
Active fires and vegetation index for December 15, 2004.
Active fires and vegetation index for March 15, 2005.
Active fires and vegetation index for July 15, 2005.
Active fires and vegetation index for September 15, 2005.
Active fires and vegetation index for December 15, 2005.
Active fires and vegetation index for March 15, 2006.
Active fires and vegetation index for July 15, 2006.
Active fires and vegetation index for September 15, 2006.
Active fires and vegetation index for December 15, 2006.
Active fires and vegetation index for March 15, 2007.
Active fires and vegetation index for July 15, 2007.
Active fires and vegetation index for September 15, 2007.
Active fires and vegetation index for December 15, 2007.
Active fires and vegetation index for March 15, 2008.
Active fires and vegetation index for July 15, 2008.
Active fires and vegetation index for September 15, 2008.
Active fires and vegetation index for December 15, 2008.
Active fires and vegetation index for March 15, 2009.
Active fires and vegetation index for July 15, 2009.
Active fires and vegetation index for September 15, 2009.
Active fires and vegetation index for December 15, 2009.
Active fires and vegetation index for March 15, 2010.
Active fires and vegetation index for July 15, 2010.
Active fires and vegetation index for September 15, 2010.
Active fires and vegetation index for December 15, 2010.
Active fires and vegetation index for March 15, 2011.
Active fires and vegetation index for July 15, 2011.
Credits
Please give credit for this item to:
NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center Scientific Visualization Studio
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Animators
- Lori Perkins (NASA/GSFC)
- Greg Shirah (NASA/GSFC)
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Producer
- Kayvon Sharghi (USRA)
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Scientists
- Chris Justice (University of Maryland)
- Louis Giglio (SSAI)
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Writer
- Adam P Voiland (Wyle Information Systems)
Release date
This page was originally published on Tuesday, October 18, 2011.
This page was last updated on Sunday, November 12, 2023 at 10:04 PM EST.
Missions
This visualization is related to the following missions:Series
This visualization can be found in the following series:Datasets used in this visualization
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Fire Location [Terra and Aqua: MODIS]
ID: 496Credit: Fire location data courtesy of MODIS Rapid Response Project (NASA/GSFC and University of Maryland - http://rapidfire.sci.gsfc.nasa.gov)
See all pages that use this dataset -
NDVI (Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI)) [Terra and Aqua: MODIS]
ID: 633
Note: While we identify the data sets used in these visualizations, we do not store any further details, nor the data sets themselves on our site.