This poster will highlight a recently published distance learning module from the Cooperative Institute for Operational Meteorology, Education, and Training (COMET) on the detection and monitoring of fire using environmental satellites. The module addresses the full fire life cycle, including monitoring of fuel conditions conducive to fires, the detection of new fires, the monitoring of intense fires, the production and transport of smoke, and resulting changes in the landscape.

The module reviews fire monitoring capability on existing polar and geostationary satellite systems, and then illustrates how the National Polar Environmental Satellite System (NPOESS) Visible/Infrared Imaging Radiometer Suite (VIIRS) will combine many previous capabilities into a single sensor. Many of the fire-monitoring capabilities of VIIRS are previewed using examples from the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) aboard the Earth Observing System (EOS) satellites. Nighttime capabilities of VIIRS are foretold using examples from the Defense Meteorological Satellite Program (DMSP) Operational Linescan System (OLS) sensor.