Wildfires burn millions of acres across the U.S. every year. According to the U.S. Department of the Interior Office of Policy Analysis, wildfires cost the U.S. approximately $424 billion annually, including firefighting resources, evacuations, health care costs, property damage, agricultural losses, and post-fire recovery.
NOAA’s satellite observations play a vital role in wildfire response by enabling early fire detection and near-continuous monitoring.
This data supports emergency response during active fire events, helps track smoke, air quality impacts, and particulate pollution, and informs long-term planning for land managers, policymakers, and communities.
In response to the growing threat of wildland fires to local communities, NOAA’s National Environmental Satellite, Data, and Information Service (NESDIS) has developed a new Wildland Fire Data Portal, which provides open access to the experimental products from the Next Generation Fire System (NGFS).
The NGFS uses a sophisticated algorithm that automatically identifies heat anomalies in GOES East and GOES West satellite data, even through clouds and smoke.