A firefighter works as the Hughes Fire burns on January 22, 2025, in Castic, Calif. Image Credit: Getty Images/Brandon Bell
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.
The NGFS detections provide timely insight on potential new fire ignitions and near-continuous monitoring of fire intensity. NOAA Incident Meteorologists (IMETs), regularly use the NGFS when deployed to major wildfire incidents, such as the 2025 Dragon Bravo in Grand Canyon National Park. Just this month, it helped detect a small fire in Colorado shortly after ignition, complementing other fire-detection technologies. The NGFS is expected to transition to full operational status later in 2026.
NOAA’s GOES-West satellite captured this image of the July 23, 2025, hot spot and smoke from the Dragon Bravo fire near the North Rim of the Grand Canyon in Arizona. The imagery and detections are available in the experimental NESDIS Wildland Fire Data Portal. The hot spot detection information is from the Next Generation Fire System (NGFS).
“Having minute-by-minute access to wildfire data is critical during an active fire. It provides the situational awareness wildfire response teams need to protect lives and property,” said Mike Pavolonis, Wildland Fire Program Manager at NESDIS’s Center for Satellite Applications and Research (STAR). “This portal represents a major step forward in ensuring stakeholders can access this information quickly and consistently.”
The NESDIS Wildland Fire Data Portal also provides access to GOES satellite imagery that is uniquely optimized for fire applications, including improved geolocation accuracy, integration with high-resolution maps, and the ability to zoom to local scales. This information is hosted on the NESDIS Common Cloud Framework (NCCF), which is managed by NESDIS’s Office of Common Services in partnership with STAR, which provides the scientific expertise behind the NGFS products. NESDIS will continue to develop and improve the Wildland Fire Data Portal in line with stakeholder feedback.
What’s Next In Public-Accessed Data
The Wildland Fire Data Portal is among the first in a planned series of NCCF-based portals designed to expand public access to NOAA’s environmental data. NOAA’s Space Weather Portal (SPOT), which was launched last year, provides access to space weather data in a cloud-based web portal. Similar platforms are in development for other mission areas.