Background

FIRMS was developed by the University of Maryland, with funds from NASA’s Applied Sciences Program and the UN Food and Agriculture Organization, to provide near real-time active fire locations to natural resource managers that faced challenges obtaining timely satellite-derived fire information.

An operational version of FIRMS, known as the Global Fire Information Management System (GFIMS) is running at the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (UN FAO) where it complements the FAO’s existing suite of projects that deliver near-real time information to ongoing monitoring and emergency projects, to other UN organizations as well as providing information to the general public.

For more information, visit the MODIS Active Fire and Burned Area products website.