NGFS is experimental until it reaches full operational status later in 2026.

The Next Generation Fire System (NGFS) is an experimental, cutting-edge initiative by NOAA to deliver actionable and timely wildfire information, moving beyond traditional methods to leverage advanced satellite capabilities and sophisticated algorithms even through clouds and smoke.  The key differentiator is speed, NGFS can provide detections in as little as one minute from the time the energy from the fire reaches the satellite and has detected fires as small as a quarter acre. 

The large polygons on the map are due to the low resolution nature of the satellites that NGFS relies on.  This does not indicate that the entire area is on fire, just that there is anomalous heat detected within that polygon.

NGFS is run in real-time using observations from GOES-16 and GOES-19, providing complete coverage of the United States and partial coverage of surrounding countries and is expected to transition to full operations in 2026. It's already being used operationally by incident meteorologists and fire dispatchers in the field.

Learn More

• Cooperative Institute for Meteorological Satellite Studies (CIMSS)
• NOAA unveils powerful convergence of AI and science with revolutionary Next-Generation Fire System technology
• NOAA: GOES-R Fire Detection and Characterization