MODIS/VIIRS fire standard products?

[earthengine_urs]

Question: is there a place to quickly get all the standard fire products in bulk? I know there is an ordering API (https://firms.modaps.eosdis.nasa.gov/content/academy/data_api/firms_api_use.html), but it would be nice to just get the full dataset, like we can do with NRT fire data by downloading CSV files.

Thanks,
Simon

[LP DAAC - dgolon]

Hi @earthengine_urs I don't believe we currently have this capability. However, I can talk to our science team to see if they have any recommendations. Are you wanting a daily list of all new fire data across the globe? Or are you also looking for previous data? Are you looking at all the 14s (i.e. VNP14, MOD14A1, etc.) and the 47s (i.e. VJ147IMG, VNP47MOD, etc.)? Thanks -- Danielle

Also tagging the LAADs team in case they have input.

[earthengine_urs]

Thank you, Danielle!

Do I understand correctly that the 47 series is the newest product version with the highest quality? Then we'd probably want to ingest those datasets first.

We are already ingesting the NRT FIRMS products, but after they stop being refreshed (within a day or so after the observation date), we stop updating them. Thus we are missing on getting updates distributed through the FIRMS site. However, if the 47 series has higher quality, perhaps we should just ingest those datasets instead.

There might be more details we should be aware of - I'm happy to start an email thread or go on a call to discuss further.

Best,
Simon

[FIRMS - dylan.mendes]

Hi @earthengine_urs , Simon,

Thank you for your interest in FIRMS data. The easiest way to get what you are looking for is through our API. We offer the standard products and NRT as you are describing. We also offer an ordering endpoint which you can submit for the data you would like if you are getting a specific point in time.

There is no where to get the full record of standard data as one single CSV file. At this point MODIS has 20+ years of data and VIIRS 10+ years, that is not an easy query on any system. The way to get what you are looking for is one of the APIs, whether that be the FIRMS API or various other APIs like the CMR API.

Let us know if you have additional questions we are happy to help.

Best,
Dylan

[LP DAAC - ckrehbiel]

Hey @earthengine_urs, below in bold I have provided some additional information regarding your questions.

Question: is there a place to quickly get all the standard fire products in bulk? I know there is an ordering API (https://firms.modaps.eosdis.nasa.gov/content/academy/data_api/firms_api_use.html), but it would be nice to just get the full dataset, like we can do with NRT fire data by downloading CSV files.

I can only speak on behalf of the LP DAAC, but the answer is yes, absolutely. You can retrieve all fire or fire-relevant datasets supported by the LP DAAC by querying NASA’s Common Metadata Repository (CMR). You can either do this directly using the CMR API, or using packages built around the API in your desired programming language, such as `earthaccess` (python). Please let me know if you’d like me to send examples of how to query fire-related MODIS/VIIRS products using CMR. I am unfortunately unfamiliar with the process you are referring to for accessing FIRMS data.

Do I understand correctly that the 47 series is the newest product version with the highest quality? Then we'd probably want to ingest those datasets first.
We are already ingesting the NRT FIRMS products, but after they stop being refreshed (within a day or so after the observation date), we stop updating them. Thus we are missing on getting updates distributed through the FIRMS site. However, if the 47 series has higher quality, perhaps we should just ingest those datasets instead.
There might be more details we should be aware of - I'm happy to start an email thread or go on a call to discuss further.

Again, I will defer to the FIRMS team regarding FIRMS products.
The VIIRS FIre Light Detection Algorithm-2 (FILDA-2) Modified Combustion Efficiency (MCE) Version 2 products (“47s”) take advantage of the rich information that visible band observation conveys at night to assess fire combustion efficiency and enhance fire detection. This product suite also utilizes improvements made in fire detection algorithms to detect smaller and cooler fires.

The VIIRS Active Fires Version 2 Products (“14s”) are designed after the Terra and Aqua Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) Thermal Anomalies and Fire data products to promote the continuity of the Earth Observation System (EOS) mission. These data products can enable users to understand the location and intensity of fire events. As far as product quality, my understanding is that these are complementary product suites and one is not necessarily of higher quality than the other. I did find the following comparison between the two products in the VIIRS FILDA User Guide:

“The global benchmark test demonstrates that FILDA-2 can detect approximately 25-30% more smaller and cooler fires than the operational VIIRS Active Fire 375 m I-band algorithm with the added benefit of providing daily global pixel-level characterizations of MCE for nighttime surface fires. Additionally, FILDA-2 reduces angular dependence in Fire Radiative Power (FRP) estimates and significantly reduces the "bowtie" (double-counting) effect in fire detection compared to the AF-I product.”

In summary, if you are looking to detect smaller, cooler fires, I might suggest the 47s, while if continuity with MODIS fire products is more important, I might suggest the 14s. If you’d like me to reach out to the PI for additional information regarding a quality comparison of the 14s vs. The 47s, let me know.

You are correct in that the 47s were published more recently (March 2025) than the 14s (April 2024).

I would love to learn more about your use case—feel free to reach out if you’d like to start a separate email thread or schedule a quick tagup to discuss further.

Regards,
Cole

[FIRMS - dylan.mendes]

Hi @earthengine_urs , to clarify we do offer the API to query the full timeseries of the standard products we offer at FIRMS. I was mentioning that there is not a way to pull the whole timeseries of the standard product(s) as one CSV. The API method is the best method for pulling all of the data as a CSV.