VIIRS Active Fire Detections for Central America and the Caribbean

Near-real-time active fire and thermal anomaly detections from NASA's Fire Information for Resource Management System (FIRMS). The data covers Central America and the Caribbean, derived from the VIIRS sensor family on Suomi-NPP, NOAA-20, and NOAA-21 satellites. Files are updated continuously, typically within 3 hours of satellite acquisition.

Use Cases

• Monitor wildfire outbreaks based on near-real-time thermal anomaly detections.
• Analyze fire frequency and distribution across Central America and the Caribbean based on the geographic coverage.
• Track fire progression over time based on data available for the last 24 hours, 48 hours, and 7 days.
• Integrate fire data into GIS applications based on the availability of SHP and KML formats.

Strengths

• Data is updated continuously, typically within 3 hours of satellite acquisition.
• Covers a specific geographic region: Central America and the Caribbean.
• Provides data in multiple geospatial formats: SHP, KML, and CSV.

Limitations

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

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

Suomi-NPP data since 2011, NOAA-20 since 2017, NOAA-21 since 2022.

Freshness

Continuously updated, last metadata update was 2026-05-13 14:47:36.948096.

Geography

Central America and the Caribbean.