Reference · built on requestCommons signalHazards & public safety

NOAA HMS Fire and Smoke Product

Daily satellite fire detections and light, medium and heavy smoke polygons over North America from NOAA's Hazard Mapping System.

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About

The Hazard Mapping System (HMS) is run by the NOAA/NESDIS Satellite Analysis Branch and was first implemented in 2002 to meet demand for active fire and smoke information over North America. Image analysts combine detections from GOES, VIIRS on S-NPP and NOAA-20, MODIS on Terra and Aqua, and AVHRR, and draw smoke polygons from daytime GOES imagery classed as light, medium or heavy. Files are posted daily under satepsanone.nesdis.noaa.gov as text, shapefile and KML, and the product page lists fire and smoke feature services as WFS.

Through Fibric, an operator reads the day's fire points and smoke polygons and proposes a ventilation change, a notice or a schedule change for a person to approve.

This is a reference listing. It documents what Fibric would read from NOAA HMS Fire and Smoke Product and what it could propose, based on the publisher's published interfaces. Fibric builds it under a managed deployment when you request it; selecting it here installs nothing.

Inputs

  • Active fire detections as text hms_fireYYYYMMDD.txt with columns Lon, Lat, YearDay, Time, Satellite, Method, Ecosystem and FRP
  • The same detections as shapefile hms_fireYYYYMMDD.zip and KML hms_fireYYYYMMDD.kml under Fire_Points/
  • Smoke polygons as shapefile hms_smokeYYYYMMDD.zip and KML hms_smokeYYYYMMDD.kml with Satellite, Start, End and a Density of light, medium or heavy
  • Smoke_Polygons/ with KML, Shapefile and Geotiff folders by year and month, plus Annual_Bundles
  • Fire and smoke detection feature services published as WFS from NOAA's ArcGIS Online
  • Cumulative VIIRS fire statistics and HMS smoke statistics by state and year on the product page

Proposed actions

Read-only. This feed informs operators; it changes nothing.

Proposed actions are target capabilities. Every action runs propose-first and needs a validated deployment and the appropriate permissions.

What you can build

  • Close outside-air dampers under heavy smoke

    When a site sits inside a smoke polygon with Density medium or heavy, propose outside-air and filtration changes for the building, for a person to approve, with a receipt of what changed.

    With Indoor Air

  • Warn outdoor crews of smoke

    Draft a schedule notice for crews at sites under a heavy smoke polygon, with the polygon's Start and End times, for a manager to send.

    With Schedule Notice

  • Count nearby fire detections each morning

    Report the number of fire points within your radius of each site and any smoke polygon overhead in the morning brief.

    With Morning Brief

  • Log smoke days for compliance

    Record each day a site was under a light, medium or heavy polygon, with the file name and Satellite, as evidence for air-quality obligations.

    With Compliance Evidence

Requirements

  • Your site coordinates to test against smoke polygons and to count fire points within a radius
  • A poller keyed to the posting schedule: fire detections by 8:00 AM Eastern, smoke late morning and again in the evening
  • Handling for UTC time stamps and Julian day of year, which HMS uses for all fire and smoke records
  • A shapefile or KML reader
Authentication
None. The files are public downloads from satepsanone.nesdis.noaa.gov; no key or registration is documented.

Limits

  • NOAA says fire positions are general guidance for strategic planning; tactical decisions need other corroborating information
  • Fire locations may be offset from the actual fire because of satellite resolution, more so over steep terrain
  • Smoke is classified from daytime GOES imagery; detection depends on cloud, canopy, terrain and fire intensity
  • The product page's archive links cover six months of fire products; longer history is a separate historical download

Access and pricing

Reference listing. Public feed access is separate from Fibric integration. If you request this feed, your quote covers the build, usage, and support.

Request NOAA HMS Fire and Smoke Product ↗

Questions and answers

When are HMS files posted?
NOAA states initial active fire detections are typically published by 8:00 AM Eastern Time and updated through the day. The first smoke classification is available between 11:00 AM and 12:00 PM Eastern; a second is generally issued between 7:00 PM and 8:00 PM.
What fields are in the fire and smoke files?
Fire files carry Lon, Lat, YearDay, Time, Satellite, Method, Ecosystem and FRP. Smoke files carry Satellite, Start, End and Density, with density light, medium or heavy since the July 19, 2022 format change. Times are UTC and dates are Julian day of year.
Which satellites feed HMS?
GOES-16 and GOES-17 for 5-minute CONUS and 10-minute full-disk observations; VIIRS on S-NPP and NOAA-20; MODIS on Terra and Aqua; and AVHRR on NOAA polar satellites, as listed on the product page.
Ask about NOAA HMS Fire and Smoke Product

Ask about the capabilities and requirements in this listing.

For project-specific requirements, contact Fibric.

This Commons signal listing is developed, published, and supported by Fibric. It reads public data published by NOAA/NESDIS Satellite Analysis Branch, Office of Satellite and Product Operations (ospo.noaa.gov, satepsanone.nesdis.noaa.gov). Upstream agencies and projects are the property of their respective owners, who are not affiliated with Fibric and do not sponsor or endorse this listing. Trademark policy