Abstract:
Web Fire Mapper is an internet based mapping tool that delivers locations of
active fires in near real time. For selected regions and countries you can view
an interactive map showing active fires for a specified time period, combined
with your choice of GIS layers and satellite imagery.
Each fire detection represents the center of a 1 km pixel flagged as containing
one or more actively burning
... fires within that pixel. The active fires are
detected using data from the MODIS (or Moderate Resolution Imaging
Spectroradiometer) instrument, on board NASA's Aqua and Terra satellites.
Web Fire Mapper is up dated with additional GIS data and remote sensing layers
in collaboration with GOFC-GOLD partners. Web Fire Mapper is primarily aimed at
supporting natural resource managers, by helping them understand when and where
fires occur.
GIS from the map is available for download. The coverages are in ESRI shapefile
and ARC/INFO export files format. Each page contains downloadable arc/info/view
data layers in a zip format that is readable by both PC and UNIX machines. Each
.zip package contains the .shp, .shx, .dbf, .sbx, and .sbn files that
correspond to the product layers. PC users can use PKZIP from &www.pkware.com&
to unpack .zip files. UNIX users can use the unzip command. JPEG files are for
illustration.
[Summary taken from http://maps.geog.umd.edu/firms/ 
