21OESS JPSS Fire Monitoring Applications of the Park Fire in California

The Park Fire initiated on 24 July 2024 and quickly spread, exhibiting extreme fire behavior in northern California. As of mid-August 2024, the fire burned 420,000 plus acres and eventually became the fourth largest wildfire in state history. Datasets from the Joint Polar Satellite System (JPSS) observed the fire at a high spatial resolution, showing the evolution of the fire’s hotspots, intensities, smoke, and burn scars over the course of a few weeks. This presentation showcases the JPSS Visible Infrared Imaging Radiometer Suite (VIIRS) imagery channels, products, multi-spectral data and RGB composites that can be utilized to observe the Park Fire during the day or night. The VIIRS data exhibits a spatial resolution of 375 and 750 meters, however, has a coarse temporal resolution over the contiguous United States (CONUS). The presentation will also explore the benefits of having three JPSS satellites in orbit (i.e., SNPP, NOAA-20 and NOAA-21) for fire monitoring applications. Additional discussion will focus on how users can complement VIIRS imagery with the high temporal resolution geostationary datasets (i.e., Advanced Baseline Imager data from GOES-16 and GOES-18) during the Park Fire event. Ancillary near-real-time VIIRS imagery webpages will be shared to help users identify where they can access the data online (e.g., the JPSS sectors on CIRA SLIDER). Corresponding satellite training resources (i.e., Quick Guides, Quick Briefs, teletraining, etc.) will also be discussed to highlight training opportunities for users, imagery interpretation of the products and assist users to become familiar with the applications and limitations of the datasets.