Winds will become southerly tomorrow and elevated smoke may mix to the surface, causing smoke to linger through the day. Smoke is expected to linger across northwestern MN through the end of the day. The smoke will begin to move west in the afternoon and should clear out of northeastern MN. Air quality in the Orange (unhealthy for sensitive groups) AQI category is expected for much of northern Minnesota today. Smoke should arrive in the state by morning and move south, reaching Hinckley and Alexandria by afternoon. Sinking air behind the front is expected to bring this smoke to the surface, creating poor air quality conditions. A band of smoke has been moving east across Canada for the past several days.Ī cold front will dive south and move across the state today and will pull this smoke into Minnesota. Fire activity has ramped up in the past week across western Canada. Here’s the forecast discussion for the next few days from the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency.Īn Air Quality Alert for fine particles due to wildfire smoke is in effect today until 4 p.m. Tuesday for the northern half of Minnesota. Because of its finer spatial resolution (375 meters), it can detect smaller fires on the ground with a bit more accuracy.ĭetecting forest fires is just one of the hundreds of remote sensing and satellite applications in use today.An air quality alert remains up until 4 p.m. VIIRS: Likewise, VIIRS on board the NASA/NOAA Suomi NPP detects active forest fires based on thermal anomalies.As explained above, it detects active fires by comparing temperature to neighboring pixels but it depends on the severity and extent of the fire. MODIS: On board Terra and Aqua satellites, MODIS has a pixel resolution of 1 km.But if the fire is too small to detect due to the spatial resolution of the sensor, the satellite won’t be able to detect it. If the difference is over a given threshold, it confirms the “hot spot” as an active wildfire. The fire detection algorithm compares the temperature of a potential fire with the temperature of the land around it. Fortunately, satellites can track forest fires and deliver warnings to emergency crews. History shows that when wildfires get out of hand, they can be costly and deadly to people nearby. Monitoring Real-Time Forest Fires with MODIS and VIIRS As you can see below, here is a satellite view of the December 2017 wildfires in California. If you downloaded the correct date and time, you should be able to see the forest fire. Finally, drag and drop the Landsat image into Google Earth Pro without any extra processing. The image type you want is Landsat Look with Geographic Reference (about 10MB). If you want to see a snapshot of the fire, your best chance is to use a Landsat scene from the USGS Earth Explorer.įortunately, we have a tutorial on how to download Landsat data. As you can see above, the latest forest fires will pop up with fire symbols. Next, drag and drop the KMZ into Google Earth Pro. But really, all it takes is a bit of legwork to get started.įirst, download the latest active fire data from NASA. Even though the imagery is usually less than a year old, chances are that you won’t see a forest fire in the application. And the best part is that it’s never a cloudy day. Google Earth Pro is a handy tool that helps you sight-see the planet.
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