very interesting look at where there are fires

The image represents wildfires for the February 20th through March 1st time frame.

http://rapidfire.sci.gsfc.nasa.gov/firemaps/#FireLocationData

Each of these fire maps accumulates the locations of the fires detected by MODIS on board the Terra and Aqua satellites over a 10-day period. Each colored dot indicates a location where MODIS detected at least one fire during the compositing period. Color ranges from red where the fire count is low to yellow where number of fires is large. The compositing periods are referenced by their start and end dates (julian day). The duration of each compositing period was set to 10 days. Compositing periods are reset every year to make year-to-year comparisons straightforward. The first compositing period of each year starts on January 1. The last compositing period of each year includes a few days from the next year.

Our About Rapid Response Imagery page provides more information on usage guidelines, product quality, and algorithms for the fire location data.

Fire location data:

MODIS fire location data are distributed in a variety of forms (e.g. interactive web mapper, GIS, GoogleEarth, text files) through the Fire Information for Resource Management System (FIRMS) at the University of Maryland. The official monthly MODIS active fire location text files are distributed from the University of Maryland via the ftp server fuoco.geog.umd.edu (login name is fire and password is burnt) in the directory modis/C5/mcd14ml. These data lag a few months behind the Rapid Response fire locations available from FIRMS. Click here for more information about the official monthly fire locations. The fire detection code used by Rapid Response is identical to that used to process the official science quality data. However, there will be slight differences in the locations of the fires detected due to the geolocation differences caused by Rapid Response using predicted ephemeris.

Credits:

Fire maps created by Jacques Descloitres, MODIS Rapid Response System at NASA/GSFC. Fire detection algorithm developed by Louis Giglio. Fire locations produced by the MODIS Rapid Response System since mid-2001. Fire locations for 2000 and 2001 produced by the MODIS Adaptative Processing System (MODAPS) at NASA/GSFC and collected by the Geography Department of University of Maryland. Background image: Blue Marble created by Reto Stokli.

Wildfire Prevention is a world-wide challange. In an up comming post I will try and have info on the various campaigns and symbols for wildfire prevention around the world.