Earth ID: 4092

Mapping the Fire Intensity Record for the United States (2000 through 2013)

Visualizations by Lori Perkins Released on August 8, 2013

This visualization displays the MODIS Climate Modeling Grid (CMG) Mean Fire Radiative Power (FRP). The CMG fire products incorporate MODIS active fire data into gridded statistical summaries of fire pixel information intended for use in regional and global modeling. The products are currently generated at 0.5 degree spatial resolution. Many of the lower intensity fires shown in red were prescribed fires, lit for either agricultural or ecosystem management purposes. Orange indicates fires that were more intense with the most intense FRP being shown in yellow. Most of these intense fires occurred in the western United States, where lightning and human activity often sparks blazes that firefighters cannot contain.

This visual shows the Mean Fire Radiative Power (FRP) from the MODIS Climate Modeling Grid fire products. Agricultural and prescribed fires are shown in dark red. More intense fires are shown in orange. Regions where the gridded statistical summaries show the most intense fires are shown in bright yellow.
This video is also available on our YouTube channel.

This image shows grid cells where the mean FRP is the highest where all values are greater then 90 megawatts.

Visualization Credits

Lori Perkins (NASA/GSFC): Lead Animator
Alison Schuyler Ogden (NASA/GSFC): Producer
Michelle Handleman (USRA): Producer
Louis Giglio (University of Maryland): Scientist
Chris Justice (University of Maryland): Scientist
Doug C. Morton (NASA/GSFC): Scientist
Laurence Schuler (ADNET): Project Support
Ian Jones (ADNET): Project Support
Patrick Lynch (Wyle Information Systems): Writer

Please give credit for this item to:
NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center Scientific Visualization Studio

Science Paper:
Giglio, L., I. Csiszar, and C. O. Justice (2006), Global distribution and seasonality of active fires as observed with the Terra and Aqua Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) sensors, J. Geophys. Res., 111, G02016, doi:10.1029/2005JG000142.

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http://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/4092

Mission:
Terra

Data Used:
Terra and Aqua/MODIS/MODIS Climate Modeling Grid November 2000 through June 2013
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.

This item is part of these series:
Fires
Multisensor Fire Observations

Keywords:
DLESE >> Biology
DLESE >> Ecology
SVS >> Fire Management
GCMD >> Earth Science >> Climate Indicators
GCMD >> Earth Science >> Biosphere >> Ecological Dynamics >> Fire Characteristics
GCMD >> Earth Science >> Biosphere >> Ecological Dynamics >> Fire Occurrence
SVS >> Hyperwall
NASA Science >> Earth
SVS >> 2013 Fires

GCMD keywords can be found on the Internet with the following citation: Olsen, L.M., G. Major, K. Shein, J. Scialdone, S. Ritz, T. Stevens, M. Morahan, A. Aleman, R. Vogel, S. Leicester, H. Weir, M. Meaux, S. Grebas, C.Solomon, M. Holland, T. Northcutt, R. A. Restrepo, R. Bilodeau, 2013. NASA/Global Change Master Directory (GCMD) Earth Science Keywords. Version 8.0.0.0.0