VNP14A1: Daily Global Fire and Thermal Anomaly Detection

VIIRS/NPP Thermal Anomalies and Fire data provides a daily, global 1-kilometer gridded composite of active fire pixels detected from satellite 750-meter bands. The product includes four science dataset layers for fire confidence, maximum fire radiative power, quality assessment, and fire position within the scan. It is designed after the MODIS fire product suite and is provided in HDF-EOS5 format with a JPEG browse image.

Use Cases

• Monitoring wildfire activity and spread based on daily fire pixel detection.
• Analyzing fire radiative power (FRP) trends for climate and emissions modeling.
• Assessing land surface thermal properties using thermal anomaly data.
• Validating and improving fire detection algorithms by comparing with MODIS products.
• Conducting quality assessment for downstream data products like vegetation indices.

Strengths

• Provides daily global coverage at a 1-kilometer spatial resolution.
• Includes four specific science dataset layers: fire confidence, maximum FRP, QA, and fire position.
• Represents an improved Version 2 with enhanced calibration, geolocation, and cloud/land mask inputs.

Limitations

• Metadata completeness is medium; specific column names, row counts, and file sizes are not provided across platforms.
• Conflicting 'last updated' dates exist between Data.gov entries (2026-03-12 and 2026-04-09).
• Known issues are referenced but not detailed within the provided descriptions, requiring external website consultation.

Provenance

Source

National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) / NOAA Suomi NPP satellite.

Collection Method

Data gathered from the Visible Infrared Imaging Radiometer Suite (VIIRS) instrument.

Time Range

Daily composites, covering the operational period of the Suomi NPP mission.

Freshness

2026-04-09 20:55:38.608160

Geography

Global.