NASA Releases Visual Tour Of Earth's Fires

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Oct. 19, 2011

Steve Cole 
Headquarters, Washington 
202-358-0918 
stephen.e.cole@xxxxxxxx 

RELEASE: 11-356

NASA RELEASES VISUAL TOUR OF EARTH'S FIRES

WASHINGTON -- NASA has released a series of new satellite data 
visualizations that show tens of millions of fires detected worldwide 
from space since 2002. The visualizations show fire observations made 
by the MODerate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer, or MODIS, 
instruments onboard NASA's Terra and Aqua satellites. 

NASA maintains a comprehensive research program using satellites, 
aircraft and ground resources to observe and analyze fires around the 
world. The research helps scientists understand how fire affects our 
environment on local, regional and global scales. 

"What you see here is a very good representation of the satellite data 
scientists use to understand the global distribution of fires and to 
determine where and how fire distribution is responding to climate 
change and population growth," said Chris Justice of the University 
of Maryland, College Park, a scientist who leads NASA's effort to use 
MODIS data to study the world's fires. 

One of the new visualizations takes viewers on a narrated global tour 
of fires detected between July 2002 and July 2011. The fire data is 
combined with satellite views of vegetation and snow cover to show 
how fires relate to seasonal changes. The Terra and Aqua satellites 
were launched in 1999 and 2002, respectively. 

The tour begins by showing extensive grassland fires spreading across 
interior Australia and the eucalyptus forests in the northwestern and 
eastern part of the continent. The tour then shifts to Asia where 
large numbers of agricultural fires are visible first in China in 
June 2004, then across a huge swath of Europe and western Russia in 
August. It then moves across India and Southeast Asia, through the 
early part of 2005. The tour continues across Africa, South America, 
and concludes in North America. 

The global fire data show that Africa has more abundant burning than 
any other continent. MODIS observations have shown that some 70 
percent of the world's fires occur in Africa. During a fairly average 
burning season from July through September 2006, the visualizations 
show a huge outbreak of savanna fires in Central Africa driven mainly 
by agricultural activities, but also driven by lightning strikes. 

Fires are comparatively rare in North America, making up just 2 
percent of the world's burned area each year. The fires that receive 
the most attention in the United States -- the uncontrolled forest 
fires in the West -- are less visible than the wave of agricultural 
fires prominent in the Southeast and along the Mississippi River 
Valley. Some of the large wildfires that ravaged Texas this year are 
visible in the animation. 

NASA maintains multiple satellite instruments capable of detecting 
fires and supports a wide range of fire-related research. Such 
efforts have yielded the most widely used data records of global fire 
activity and burned area in the world. NASA-supported scientists use 
the data to advance understanding about Earth's climate system, 
ecosystem health, and the global carbon cycle. 

NASA's Applied Sciences Program seeks out innovative and practical 
benefits that result from studying fires. For example, the program 
has found ways to integrate space-based wildfire observations into 
air quality models used by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency 
that help protect public health. 

NASA will extend the United States' capability to monitor and study 
global fires from space with the launch this month of the National 
Polar-orbiting Operational Environmental Satellite System Preparatory 
Project, known as NPP. The satellite is the first mission designed to 
collect data to increase our understanding of long-term climate 
change and improve weather forecasts. 

One of NPP's new, state-of-the-art science instruments will provide 
scientists with data to extend the long-term global fires data 
record. The satellite is targeted to launch from Vandenberg Air Force 
Base in California on Oct. 28. The mission is managed by NASA's 
Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md., for the Earth Science 
Division of the Science Mission Directorate at NASA Headquarters in 
Washington. 

MODIS data are processed by the MODIS Advanced Processing System at 
Goddard. The algorithm and product validation is done by scientists 
at the University of Maryland. The visualizations were created at 
Goddard's Scientific Visualization Studio. The fire, vegetation and 
snow data all come from the MODIS instruments on Terra and Aqua. 

To watch the global tour of the world's fires, visit: 



http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/fires/main/modis-10-overview.html 


For regular updates on fires and their effects worldwide, visit: 



http://www.nasa.gov/fires 

	
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