FIRMS: What does scan and track mean?

[Earthdata - wxedward]

What does scan and track mean?

Scan and Track values are included in the attributes (see: What are the attributes / fields of the active fire data?). The scan value represents the spatial-resolution in the East-West direction of the scan and the track value represents the North-South spatial resolution of the scan. It should be noted that the pixel size is not always 1 km across the scan track. The pixels at the “Eastern” and the “Western” edges of the scan are bigger than 1 km. It is 1 km only along the nadir (exact vertical from the satellite). Thus, the values shown for scan and track represent the actual spatial resolution of the scanned pixel.