Southeast Asia Active Fire Detections from MODIS Satellites

NASA's FIRMS provides near-real-time active fire and thermal anomaly detections for Southeast Asia, derived from MODIS sensors on Terra and Aqua satellites. Data files in SHP, KML, and CSV formats are updated within 3 hours of satellite acquisition. The dataset offers time windows for the last 24 hours, 48 hours, and 7 days.

Use Cases

• Monitor wildfire spread and intensity based on near-real-time thermal anomaly detections.
• Analyze regional fire patterns and seasonality based on data from Terra (since 2000) and Aqua (since 2002) satellites.
• Model land-use change and deforestation risks based on active fire location data covering Southeast Asia.
• Support emergency response and resource allocation based on fire detections available for the last 24h, 48h, and 7d.

Strengths

• Data is updated within 3 hours of satellite acquisition, enabling near-real-time monitoring.
• Provides continuous coverage from Terra since 2000 and Aqua since 2002, offering a multi-decade perspective.
• Offers multiple temporal windows (last 24h, 48h, 7d) and geospatial formats (SHP, KML, CSV) for flexibility.

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.
• Data may reflect geographic bias inherent to the MODIS sensor's coverage and resolution over Southeast Asia.

Provenance

Source

NASA Fire Information for Resource Management System (FIRMS)

Collection Method

Satellite remote sensing from MODIS sensors on Terra and Aqua platforms.

Time Range

Terra data since 2000, Aqua data since 2002; continuously updated.

Freshness

Continuously updated; last metadata update was 2026-05-13 14:52:21.763899.

Geography

Southeast Asia