The first thing you should know, is that wildfires require
Every day, NASA is able to detect thousands
of new fires from space.
Along with our partners at NOAA,
we use both polar orbiting and geostationary satellites
to get insight as to the structure and evolution of a fire.
Geostationary satellites remain fixed in relationship to the globe,
giving us new images of one hemisphere every 5 to 15 minutes.
However, the resolution is usually coarser
than that of polar orbiting satellites,
which will pass over a fire twice per day.
From over 500 miles above Earth,
these orbiting satellites will detect and characterize thermal anomalies:
locations on the Earth's surface that are hotter than their neighbors,
that can indicate burning associated with new
or existing fire events.
Importantly, these instruments can detect fires at night -
a time when wildfires typically lay down and smolder.
Since the majority of large wildfires lasts for multiple days,
the ability to track them both day and night is instrumental
to helping land managers combat the blazes.