image: This image shows a fire detected on Jan. 19, 2012, of a smoky fire burning in the mountains east of San Diego, California. The fire is marked in red. The VIIRS instrument was launched on Oct. 28, 2011, on the Suomi National Polar-orbiting Partnership (NPP) satellite and produced its first image on Nov. 21. By Jan. 19, 2012, the sensor acquired its first measurements of fires. These measurements and others from VIIRS are still preliminary, and scientists and engineers will continue testing and calibrating the measurements over the coming weeks before data are released for public use. It took longer to acquire the first VIIRS fire measurements because the sensor had to cool enough to accurately observe thermal infrared energy. The image indicates that the VIIRS sensor is in good health and that it appears to be detecting fires accurately. In the image, the fire detections line up with plumes of smoke. Flying over the same areas at about the same time, the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on NASA’s Aqua satellite also detected the fire in California. It is vital that VIIRS makes these measurements because vegetation fires are one of the most important elements of land cover change and nutrient recycling in the Earth system. Fires play a major role in the formation and maintenance of numerous ecosystems. With the beginning of daily polar orbiting satellite data—which started in the early 1980s—and the routine monitoring of fire activity, it soon became clear that humans were quickly changing the natural fire regimes of large areas of the world. The fires have cascading effects on atmospheric composition (due to smoke) and alteration of climate conditions. Due to the widespread occurrence of fires, Earth satellites have become the primary resource for the monitoring of biomass burning and for timely information for fire managers and the science community. NOTE: On Jan. 25, the satellite was renamed in honor of Verner E. Suomi, “the father of satellite meteorology.” view more
Credit: Image courtesy Ivan Csiszar, NOAA/NESDIS Center for Satellite Applications and Research, and Wilfrid Schroeder, University of Maryland Earth System Science Interdisciplinary Center. Caption by Holli Riebeek, Ivan Csiszar, and Wilfrid Schroeder.