The GOES Wildfire Automated Biomass Burning Algorithm (WFABBA) uses the 3.9 and 10.7 micrometer channel from the current GOES satellites to detect fires and retrieve their size and temperature. WFABBA is currently also being adapted for use with the new GOES series of satellites starting from GOES-R. The GOES-R 3.9, 10.35 and 11.2 micrometer bands are being used in the new algorithm. The nominal pixel size for GOES-R is 2 km compared to 4 km for current GOES. Also the saturation brightness temperature for GOES-R is 400 K for the 3.9 micrometer channel compared to 330 for current GOES. The higher spatial resolution and the higher saturation threshold will eventually lead to an increase in the dynamic range of fires being detected. Also the retrieval of size and temperature will span a larger dynamic range.

A theoretical comparison of detection thresholds in the current GOES and GOES-R 3.9 micrometer bands will be presented to show the improvements in fire detection from the new series of GOES satellites.