VIIRS Active Fire Detections for Southeast Asia, Updated Within 3 Hours

NASA's FIRMS provides near-real-time active fire and thermal anomaly detections for Southeast Asia from the VIIRS sensor family. Data is available in multiple formats and time windows, updated typically within 3 hours of satellite overpass. The dataset includes observations from Suomi-NPP since 2011, NOAA-20 since 2017, and NOAA-21 since 2022.

Use Cases

• Monitor wildfire spread and intensity based on near-real-time thermal anomaly data.
• Analyze historical fire trends and seasonality based on data spanning over a decade.
• Model fire risk and land-use impact based on geospatial fire detection points.
• Support emergency response and resource allocation based on last 24-hour fire activity.

Strengths

• Data is updated typically within 3 hours of satellite acquisition, enabling near-real-time monitoring.
• Provides a long-term record with observations from Suomi-NPP since 2011.
• Offers data 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.
• Data may reflect geographic bias inherent to the satellite's coverage of Southeast Asia.

Provenance

Source

NASA Fire Information for Resource Management System (FIRMS)

Collection Method

Derived from the VIIRS sensor family aboard 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.

Geography

Southeast Asia