FIRMS: Why was a particular fire not detected?

[Earthdata - wxedward]

Why was a particular fire not detected?

There are several reasons why MODIS or VIIRS may not have detected a fire: The fire may have started and ended between satellite observations; cloud cover, heavy smoke, or tree canopy may completely obscure a fire; occasionally the instruments are inoperable and can observe nothing during these times (see data outages and known issues for MODIS and VIIRS); the fire may have been too small or too cool to be detected. The VIIRS 375 m active fire product provides a greater response over fires of relatively small areas due to its higher spatial resolution and it has improved nighttime performance. For more information on the minimum size of fire that can be detected using MODIS data see "What is the smallest fire size that can be detected?" and "How do I know if a fire detection was missed due to cloud or missing data?"