VIIRS Fire Monitoring Applications

The Visible Infrared Imaging Radiometer Suite (VIIRS) instrument is on-board the Suomi-National Polar-orbiting Partnership (S-NPP), the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration - 20 (NOAA-20) and the NOAA-21 satellites from the Joint Polar Satellite System (JPSS) constellation. Each VIIRS instrument consists of 22 individual spectral channels and comprises 5 Imagery Bands (I-bands), plus 16 Moderate Bands (M-bands) and 1 Day/Night Band (DNB). The Imagery bands exhibit a 375-m spatial resolution while the Moderate bands and the DNB are at a 750-m spatial resolution. The VIIRS instrument has a variety of environmental applications, however, this presentation focuses on a subset of fire monitoring applications that users can employ in the operational environment. Some of the VIIRS fire applications that will be discussed are the detection of fire hotspots, fire intensities, smoke, and burn scars. VIIRS data inputs are also integrated into smoke model forecasting applications, where smoke products from the High-Resolution Rapid Refresh Smoke (H-RRR Smoke) will be showcased as well. Several daytime and nighttime VIIRS fire applications will be included covering examples from individual spectral bands, derived products, multi-spectral imagery and RGB composites. A VIIRS and GOES ABI (i.e., geostationary data from the GOES-16/18/19) imagery comparison example will also be shown to demonstrate how both types of datasets can be utilized with one another in an operational setting. Within the presentation, users will be able to access the corresponding JPSS VIIRS satellite training materials (i.e., Quick Guides, product reference documents) that help with fast, refresher training and that describe the applications, limitations, and the product or imagery interpretation of the VIIRS data. Online near-real-time data weblinks (e.g., from the JPSS sectors available on CIRA SLIDER) will also be displayed to assist users in how to access VIIRS fire-related datasets via online webpages.