WEBVTT FILE

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The 2020 Western U.S. wildfire season was historic.

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Both for the record 59 thousand wildfires that formed,

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and the 10.1 million acres they scorched.

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But, right on its heels was 2021

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in which nearly 52,300 fires were recorded

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with more than 7.8 million acres burned through December 24th

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of that year.

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Since launching in 2016, NOAA's most advanced geostationary satellites

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are improving fire weather forecasts,

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wildfire detection, and fire hazards tracking in near real-time.

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With lives and property at stake, timely, high-quality data is critical

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for firefighting efforts on the ground.

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NOAA's GOES-17, operating in the GOES West orbit,

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has shown its mettle, detecting and monitoring wildfires

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and the hazardous smoke they emit.

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Dan Lindsay: There's two instruments on the GOES series of satellites

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which are helpful for wildfire detection and monitoring.

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The first is the Advanced Baseline Imager, or the ABI.

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Where we're able to detect hotspots from the thermal signatures

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from the fires. And we're also able to detect the smoke.

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And track the smoke with time in order to issue notifications

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and warnings to the public.

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The second instrument is called the
Geostationary Lightning Mapper, or the GLM.

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The GLM is important  because oftentimes lightning

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is the cause of the start of wildfires.

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And so, forecasters can monitor the GLM to see where
lightning has occurred.

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To decide whether or not they think some
lightning may have started a fire.

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Narrator: But a new satellite called GOES-T is poised to replace GOES-17 in the GOES West position.

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Once is it reaches orbit, GOES-T will be renamed GOES-18

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and it will provide the same sophisticated technology

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to track wildfires in the Western U.S., as well as detect lightning

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that can ignite a wildfire in parched vegetation.

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Heath Hockenberry:  This current capability of GOES

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is the fact that we can do rapid scans,

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higher resolution with higher sensitivity.

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And include things for the first time like lightning mapper,

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and  the ABI instruments.

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I don't think we could imagine not having GOES capability.
We absolutely need it.

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Narrator: The National Interagency Fire Center is the nation's support center for wildland firefighting.

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Sean Triplett: GOES in an eye in the sky.

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It's giving us a hemispheric perspective with GOES-16 and 17.

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Without having those two satellites up there,

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constantly staring, constantly monitoring, constantly providing us with information

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we really have a - just a big gap.

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We would lose a lot of our capabilities to understand the environment.

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To see the interaction of the fires with the atmosphere.

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And see how the atmosphere is impacting the behaviour of the fires.

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With GOES being able to look at the United States every five to ten minutes,

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We're getting a much more

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real-time appreciation for how fires are behaving.

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Because of the ability of the GOES satellites to detect the heat from the fires.

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Narrator: For more information about the launch of NOAA's GOES-T satellite, please visit the link (www.nesdis.noaa.gov).

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NOAA Satellite and Information Service Logo

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NASA Meatball

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GOES-T Logo
Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite-R Series