MODIS Active Fire Detections for Australia and New Zealand

Near-real-time active fire and thermal anomaly detections covering Australia and New Zealand, derived from NASA's MODIS sensors on Terra and Aqua satellites. The data is provided by NASA's Fire Information for Resource Management System (FIRMS) and is continuously updated, typically within 3 hours of satellite acquisition. Files are available in SHP, KML, and CSV formats for time windows of the last 24 hours, 48 hours, and 7 days.

Use Cases

• Monitor near-real-time wildfire spread based on thermal anomaly detections.
• Analyze historical fire patterns over the last 7 days based on the available time windows.
• Integrate fire location data into GIS systems for resource management based on the SHP and KML formats.
• Conduct temporal analysis of fire activity since 2000 based on the MODIS sensor data history.

Strengths

• Data is updated within 3 hours of satellite acquisition, providing near-real-time utility.
• Provides a long-term record from MODIS sensors, with Terra data since 2000 and Aqua since 2002.
• Offers multiple data formats (SHP, KML, CSV) for different analytical workflows.

Limitations

• Column-level documentation is absent; field semantics must be inferred after download.
• Row count is unknown, which may limit suitability assessment for large-scale analysis.

Provenance

Source

NASA Fire Information for Resource Management System (FIRMS)

Collection Method

Derived from MODIS sensor data on Terra and Aqua satellites.

Time Range

Terra data since 2000, Aqua data since 2002, with rolling windows of last 24h, 48h, and 7d.

Freshness

Continuously updated, typically within 3 hours of acquisition.

Geography

Australia and New Zealand