AURSEEAursee · method
Lightning near a fire
How Aursee checks for lightning before a fire was first seen, and where that check is possible.
The data
Lightning comes from the Geostationary Lightning Mapper (GLM) on the GOES-East and GOES-West satellites, which records flashes continuously over its field of view.
For each fire we count the flashes within 25 km in the 24 hours before its first detection.
Coverage
GLM sees the Americas and the oceans on either side. It does not see Europe, Africa, Asia or Australia. For a fire outside its view the page says there is no lightning coverage, which is a different statement from no lightning.
Reading it
Lightning is the main natural way a wildland fire starts. A count above zero says a storm was nearby; zero inside coverage says no flash was recorded within 25 km. Either figure is one input, stated with its radius and window.
More on the method
- What a satellite fire detection isHow VIIRS finds active fires from orbit, what a 375 m detection means, and when a fire is not seen.
- Fires in the dark: how satellites find them at nightWhy a fire is easier to see from orbit at night, how VIIRS picks a flame of a few dozen square metres out of a 375 m pixel, and what “burning in darkness” means on the map.
- Fire radiative power (MW)What fire radiative power measures, how Aursee adds it up, and how to compare two fires.
- How detections become firesThe rule Aursee uses to turn individual satellite pixels into fires you can open, name and follow.
- The burn archive, 2012 to todayHow Aursee remembers where fire has been detected since 2012, and what the history figures on each page mean.
- Land cover and roads under a fireWhat kind of ground a fire is burning on, and how many roads are around it: sources and resolution.
- Weather at a fireWhere the wind, humidity and temperature on a fire page come from, and at what time and resolution.
- Data sources and licencesEvery dataset Aursee uses, who publishes it, and the licence it is used under.