Canada VIIRS Active Fire Detections in Near-Real-Time

NASA FIRMS provides near-real-time active fire and thermal anomaly detections for Canada from the VIIRS sensor family. Data is updated continuously, typically within 3 hours of satellite acquisition, and is available in SHP, KML, and CSV formats for the last 24 hours, 48 hours, and 7 days. Suomi-NPP, NOAA-20, and NOAA-21 satellites have contributed data since 2011.

Use Cases

• Monitor wildfire spread and intensity based on near-real-time thermal anomaly data.
• Analyze historical fire patterns across Canada based on data collected since 2011.
• Model fire risk and fuel load using continuous satellite overpass data.
• Support emergency response and resource allocation based on fire locations updated within 3 hours.

Strengths

• Data is updated within 3 hours of satellite acquisition, enabling near-real-time monitoring.
• Coverage spans Canada and includes data from three VIIRS satellites since 2011.
• Data is available in multiple geospatial formats (SHP, KML, CSV) for different analysis 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 modeling.

Provenance

Source

NASA Fire Information for Resource Management System (FIRMS)

Collection Method

Derived from the VIIRS sensor family on Suomi-NPP, NOAA-20, and NOAA-21 satellites.

Time Range

Data available for last 24h, 48h, and 7d; sensor data collection ongoing since 2011.

Freshness

Continuously updated; last metadata update was 2026-05-13.

Geography

Canada