Wildfires

Wildfires

Global near-real-time thermal anomaly detections from NASA's Fire Information for Resource Management System (FIRMS), using the VIIRS Suomi-NPP satellite product. Each point is a single satellite detection, not a confirmed fire boundary — heat sources other than wildfire (agricultural burning, industrial flares, volcanic activity) can also trigger a detection.

Global Hotspot Map

High-confidence detections only, sized by fire radiative power (FRP) — larger markers mean a more intense signal. Ingested via the platform feeds addon and rendered from the record store at view time (no page churn).

If nothing renders above, the firms-viirs feed source is not yet configured (see Configuration).

Reading the map

• Marker size scales with FRP (fire radiative power, in megawatts) among the detections shown — bigger markers are more intense, not necessarily larger fires.
• High-confidence only. Low and nominal-confidence detections are filtered out here to keep the map readable — VIIRS confidence reflects the satellite's certainty about the detection itself, not the fire's severity.
• Click a marker for the raw detection: coordinates, FRP, confidence, and acquisition time (UTC).
• This is a snapshot of the current ~24-hour NRT window, refreshed hourly — it is not a historical fire-tracking map.

Data Source

Configuration

The live feed is served by the ngdpbase feeds addon (#685). Enable it and declare the source in the instance app-custom-config.json, then restart:

{
  "ngdpbase.addons.feeds.enabled": true,
  "ngdpbase.addons.feeds.sources": {
    "firms-viirs": {
      "adapter": "csv",
      "url": "https://firms.modaps.eosdis.nasa.gov/api/area/csv/<MAP_KEY>/VIIRS_SNPP_NRT/world/1",
      "type": "Event",
      "intervalMinutes": 60,
      "map": {
        "latitude": "latitude",
        "longitude": "longitude",
        "frp": "frp",
        "confidence": "confidence",
        "acq_date": "acq_date",
        "acq_time": "acq_time"
      }
    }
  }
}

Requires a free NASA FIRMS API key — never commit the key itself to a repository; it belongs only in the instance's own app-custom-config.json on the data volume.

Status: page and feed wiring live. For live data outside this instance visit NASA FIRMS.

Related Pages

• Volcanoes — search, filter, and map every GVP-catalogued volcano
• Earthquakes — recent seismic activity
• Alerts — cross-hazard summary of what's currently active