Southern Africa MODIS Active Fire Detections: Near-Real-Time Thermal Anomalies

Near-real-time active fire and thermal anomaly detections covering Southern Africa from NASA's FIRMS, derived from MODIS sensors on Terra (since 2000) and Aqua (since 2002) satellites. Files are continuously updated, typically within 3 hours of satellite acquisition. Data is available in SHP, KML, and CSV formats for time windows of 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 historical fire patterns and seasonality based on data spanning from 2000/2002 to present.
• Model fire risk and land-use impact based on geospatial point data covering Southern Africa.
• Integrate live fire data into emergency response dashboards based on sub-3-hour update latency.

Strengths

• Data is updated within 3 hours of satellite acquisition, enabling near-real-time monitoring.
• Provides a long-term record from MODIS sensors, with Terra data starting in 2000 and Aqua in 2002.
• Offers data in multiple geospatial formats (SHP, KML, CSV) for flexibility in analysis.

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 and the Southern Africa focus.

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 to present.

Freshness

Continuously updated, typically within 3 hours of acquisition. Last platform metadata update was 2026-05-13.

Geography

Southern Africa