Engaging JPSS for Wildland Fire Management in Alaska: Past, Present, and Future

The Joint Polar Satellite System (JPSS) has played a lead role in Alaska wildfire management by deploying the highly capable Visible Infrared Imaging Radiometer Suite (VIIRS) on each satellite in its constellation. These satellites are also equipped with High Rate Data Direct-Broadcast technology, allowing continuous downlink of mission data to small antennas. This results in faster dissemination of active fire detections and fire imagery to wildland fire managers. At the University of Alaska Fairbanks, the Geographic Information Network of Alaska (GINA) operates two direct-broadcast antennas and a near real-time production system that provides VIIRS fire products to the Alaska Interagency Coordination Center. The low-latency delivery of these products as hosted map services helps fire managers plan strategies to protect Alaska residents and businesses from wildfire disasters. The same products are also delivered directly to the National Weather Service Alaska Region via their Advanced Weather Interactive Processing System (AWIPS). This presentation will summarize the 2024 Alaska fire season and show examples of VIIRS Active Fire Detections and RGB products. We will also present a look towards the future - the NOAA National Environmental Satellite, Data, and Information Service (NESDIS) Next Generation Fire System (NGFS) for Alaska. At its core, NGFS deploys an advanced sensor agnostic (applicable to geostationary or low earth orbit satellites) algorithm to better detect active fires in the presence of clouds and smoke. NGFS was successfully deployed for VIIRS (S-NPP, NOAA-20, NOAA-21) on a development system at GINA in the summer of 2024, with more activities planned for the summer of 2025. VIIRS fire products, generated with data received with direct broadcast, have made an enormous difference to countless Alaskans over the past decade. With the tremendous investment in people and wildland fire satellite technology afforded by the Fiscal Year 2022 Disaster Relief Supplemental Appropriations and the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, we expect to build upon our successes with the launch of JPSS-4, JPSS-3, and MetOp-SG.