Strategic Planning and Resource Assessment

Forest Service 2003 Success Stories

Success Stories: Forest Service Uses Satellite Imagery to Map Wildland Fires across the Nation

The Forest Service Remote Sensing Applications Center (RSAC) in Salt Lake City, Utah uses imagery acquired by NASA's Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) sensor to produce wildland fire maps for the United States.

The "Active Fire Maps" provide a synoptic view of the daily wildfire situation across the nation. The maps may be used to support strategic, regional-to-national scale planning, and as a public information tool. Daily maps are produced for 20 geographic areas in the United States and are distributed via Internet.

During the 2002 fire season over 3,000 daily users accessed the MODIS Active Fire Maps, downloading approximately 3.5GB of map data each day.

At the height of the Rodeo-Chediski fire June 21, 2002, over 25,000 people visited the website.

The Active Fire Mapping program is a collaborative effort between the USDA Forest Service, NASA Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC), and the University of Maryland. RSAC acquires and processes MODIS imagery of the western U.S. at the Salt Lake City facility and also produces the maps. GSFC provides MODIS imagery coverage of the eastern U.S. and Alaska. The University of Maryland developed the fire detection algorithm and procedure.

The Active Fire Maps are available at activefiremaps.fs.fed.us.

USDA Forest Service - Strategic Planning and Resource Assessment
Last Modified: Tuesday, 18 May 2004 at 11:33:52 EDT