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National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration National Environmental Satellite, Data, and Information Service
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The Satellite Services Division of the National Environmental Satellite, Data, and Information Service (NESDIS) provides real time access to satellite data and products for the public and government. (More information about SSD)

Hazard Mapping System

Analyzed Fires From Satellites

FAQs...

Q. What am I looking at when I first enter the web site?

A. You're seeing the "Initial extent" of the map frame. This is as far out as you can be. When you press the Full View button, this is also what you'll see (plus any additional data layers you have turned on). By default, only the HMS layer is turned on. This is the layer that has been quality checked by a satellite analyst. This initial extent includes the continental United States, Alaska and Hawaii. Data may appear in Canada, Mexico and the Caribbean Islands from the automated layers, but have not been verified by analysts.

Q. How can I find the exact location of the data?

A. There are many ways to locate the data on the map. The first is to simply place the cursor over the data (zoom in first) and the latitude and longitude are displayed in the component bar at the bottom of the browser. Sencond, press the identify button in the Navigation Tools column. Now place the cursor over the data (this does not apply for image data) and press the left mouse button. A record of the data will appear in the text frame which often contains lattitude and longitude information. Lastly, and this is not as precise at the first two methods, by turning off the states layer and pressing the Refresh Map button you can see the county under the data and from there, select the identfy button to see tabular data on that county including its name.

Q. When I zoom into a certain area, all these curved lines appear on the map. What are they?

A. These lines are interstates and rivers. By design, ArcIMS will display them at or under an elevation of 1:10,000,000. The red lines are interstates and the numbers that appear above these lines are the interstate numbers. The blue lines are the rivers. (just think of red for interstates and blue for water). Also, you can select the identify button to display tabular data on either interstates or rivers.

Q. What is the identify button used for?

A. Most of the data displayed in the mapframe has tabular data associated with it. This means that in most cases, you can press the Identify button and select a graphic element on the map by holding the cursor over the object and pressing the left mouse button and tabular data will appear in the textframe. This additional information will assist the user in understanding the geographical situation.

Q. I've clicked on additional layers and pressed Refresh Map and nothing changes. Why?

A. Try pressing the Reload button at the top of the browser. You should see some points visible even from the Full View screen. If you still don't see anything, check the date and time of the data in the "This map was last updated..." link at the top of the page. There may be no fires detected by this sensor or the flow of these products may be temporarily disabled. This site is monitored Monday through Friday during regular business hours. Feel free to point out problems or make suggestions using our "Contact Us" link at the top of the page.

Q. When all the layers are on and I Zoom In, why don't the detects from individual layers always match?

A. The satellites takes a snapshot of the earth's surface at specific times. It is not continuously retrieving data and sending it back to earth. For this reason, we try to use data from all possible sensors to detect as many fires as possible. Not all fires will be caught by all sensors. Also, fires are typically much smaller than the field-of-view (FOV) of the satellite. For example, the WF-ABBA product has a 4 km FOV. It can detect fires much smaller than 4 km, but places them at the center of a 4-km square.

Q. AVHRR has known navigation problems. Are the positions for the FIMMA layer correct?

A. We run the AVHRR data through the Navigation Correction software before creating the FIMMA product. This software uses Group Control Points (GCP) or known points on the earth and identifies corresponding points on the image. It then "rubber sheets" the image to best match these points. When enough GCPs are found, the navigation correction is successful. When it fails, a several km error can remain in the FIMMA product. You'll note that we only include counties, interstates and rivers as local layers to help users resolve fire locations. To locate fires to a precision less than a few km, users should contact local land managers, fire fighters and law enforcement personnel.

Q. There are no identified Fire Potential areas, but I still see many fires. How can this be?

A. The Fire Potential area shows areas where weather conditions exist that are conducive to wildfires. Controlled or agricultural burns are intentionally started in regions with weather conditions (such as wet, low wind) where fires will not get out of hand. Satellite fire detection cannot distinguish between planned and wild fires.

Q. What should I do if I get a message box from Internet Explorer indicating the website is 'unable to start, required HTML form missing?'

A. To resolve this problem, you must revise the URL to replace /viewer.htm with /run.htm. The URL should read: http://www.firedetect.noaa.gov/run.htm instead of http://www.firedetect.noaa.gov/viewer.htm.

Q. Why do the smoke regions sometimes appear to stop at a sharp line?

A. Currently, the analyst product is made in geographic subsets (boxes) that cover the 48 U.S. contiguous states, Alaska and Hawaii. the analyst cannot annotate fire or smoke outside of these boxes. At times, during large scale smoke events, the full extent of the smoke cannot be fully annotated and must stop at the edge of the analysis box. In future versions of the product, as machine memory is increased, we hope to be able to eliminate this problem.

Q. What does the layer Significant Smoke Producing Fires represent?

A. These are hotspots identified by the analyst that are producing smoke that can be seen in visible satellite imagery. Not all fires produce enough smoke to be seen with the satellite data used for the analysis because the resolution of the data is not high enough. Clicking on the link for this layer goes to the National Weather Service Air Quality forecast web site. At the bottom of the page are graphics of smoke forecasts that are based on information provided with the Significant Smoke Producing Fires layer.