The MODIS Rapid Response System was developed to provide daily satellite images of the Earth's landmasses in near real time. True-color, photo-like imagery and false-color imagery are available within a few hours of being collected, making the system a valuable resource for organizations like the U.S. Forest Service and the international fire monitoring community, who use the images to track fires; the United States Department of Agriculture Foreign Agricultural Service, who monitors crops and growing conditions; and the United States Environmental Protection Agency and the United States Air Force Weather Agency, who track dust and ash in the atmosphere. The science community also uses the system in projects like the Aerosol Robotic Network (AERONET), which studies particles like smoke, pollution, or dust in the atmosphere. More information about science and application partners, including links, is provided on our applications page. Captioned interpreted images for educators, the media, and the public are available through the Earth Observatory. The system is freely available to everyone--scientists, operational users, educators, and the general public. Please see our Usage Guidelines.

The Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) flies onboard NASA's Aqua and Terra satellites as part of the NASA-centered international Earth Observing System. Both satellites orbit the Earth from pole to pole, seeing most of the globe every day. Onboard Terra, MODIS sees the Earth during the morning, while Aqua MODIS orbits the Earth in the afternoon.

Effective 11 November 2009:

Our new About Rapid Response Imagery page provides more information on usage guidelines, product quality, and algorithms for our imagery.

Effective 20 October 2009:

Recently our web server has become unavailable numerous times due to large number of simultaneous requests for dynamic subset generation. In an attempt to alleviate this problem, we have instituted a limit to the number of dynamic subsets that can be generated at one time.

As a result, you may receive a "service unavailable" message when trying to download subset images. If you do, please try again after a minute or two.

If you are using automated scripts, we request that you wait at least 1 minute between requests to allow other users access to the imagery.

The Fire Information for Resource Management System (FIRMS) at the University of Maryland integrates remote sensing and GIS technologies to deliver global MODIS hotspot/fire locations to natural resource managers and other stakeholders around the World.

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The USFS's Remote Sensing Applications Center generates regional maps for the US fire managers using the active fire locations provided by the MODIS Rapid Response System, and also makes them available through an interactive ArcIMS interface over the conterminous United States, Alaska, and Canada.

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A large number of near-real-time georectified images across the world are available in our MODIS Rapid Response Subsets page in GIS-compatible format, including most AERONET sunphotometer sites.

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A large collection of MODIS Rapid response imagery can be found in the Earth Observatory's Natural Hazards section, with captions that provide pertinent information about each image.

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The MODIS Rapid Response imagery is used in a number of applications, including fire monitoring, burn area mapping, crop monitoring, flood mapping, and air quality monitoring.

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Global 10-day fire maps are generated using the MODIS Rapid Response fire locations to represent the current fire activity across the world.

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+ Fire location data

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NASA Official: Ed Masuoka

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