As every summer unfortunately and more and more with the rise in temperatures, fires burn thousands of hectares of forests. In France, as in the rest of the world, very many fires and forest fires break out accidentally or because of human stupidity, requiring firefighters to intervene to try to control them.
And to know where a fire is happening, I wanted to present you this interactive fire map. It allows you to visualize all the fires listed in the world and provides information on these terrible events. This map of active fires called FIRMS (Fire Information for Resource Management System) is made by NASA from data collected by satellites. It is made available to the public free of charge and reminds me of this world light pollution map.
A fire map updated with less than 3 hours of lag
This interactive map demonstrates the power of satellite imagery as it allows data to be displayed very quickly and made accessible to the public.
These data come from two sources. The first, MODIS (Moderate-Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer) is a series of terrestrial scientific observation instruments coupled to a system on board the Terra and Aqua satellites launched by NASA. The second source, VIIRS (Visible Infrared Imaging Radiometer Suite) is a system of sensors on board the Suomi NPP and NOAA-20 weather satellites.
These two systems thus allow NASA to know in a fairly objective way the approximate location where a fire has occurred and its extent. The data thus published on active fires are in quasi real time. They are displayed within three hours following observation by the MODIS and VIIRS systems.
Moreover, you will certainly find these satellites in these tools allowing you to view satellites in real time.
How to use this map of fires in France and around the world?
Although a little complex, this map is a veritable goldmine of information regarding the fires currently burning around the world.
It allows access to current information with a near real-time view, over the last 24 hours or even the last week. But it also stores historical data on fires and allows you to go back in time since November 2000. This tool allows, for example, to visualize all the fires in France at a given time t or even more precisely anywhere in France or even on a regional scale as with the Gironde in the image below.
The map has a basic mode and an advanced mode.
Basic mode is, as its name suggests, simpler and provides easy access to all active fire data. Each fire detection is represented by a point. Each point from MODIS represents a 1km by 1km square and 375m by 375m for VIIRS points. This does not mean that the entire square is on fire, but that one or more fires have been identified somewhere in this square.
The advanced mode offers a few more options, including satellite orbit trajectories and times of passage. This mode also allows you to superimpose different context elements to give more value to satellite observations: protected areas, human presence, etc.
In all modes, the site has several particularly interesting tools that allow you to zoom in/out on the map, search for a place or an address, measure distances or even an area. This last option is very practical for trying to calculate the size of a fire!
It is also possible to export maps in JPG, PNG or GIF format to obtain a fairly clean result:
This 20-minute video in English (with the option to translate the subtitles into French) explains in more detail how to use FIRMS resources.
Note that when I tested this card, the site was particularly slow. This is explained by the fact that the site is overloaded, a victim of its success.
But beyond that, this tool is really powerful and this data is of a rare quality and allows us to follow very precisely the evolution of the fire map in France and all over the world!
Article updated on August 24, 2024 by Byothe
