The American Meteorological Society (AMS) Committee on Satellite Meteorology, Oceanography, and Climatology (SatMOC) is pleased to offer a virtual short course with NOAA collaborators titled “Satellites and Fire'' during June 2025. This short course will consist of four 4-hour virtual training sessions described below. The training sessions are scheduled for 9:00 AM to 1:00 PM ET on June 17,18, 24, and 25, 2025. This series of four training sessions will demonstrate the use of environmental satellite data to monitor the stages of wildland fires and the vegetative conditions associated with those stages.
The short course will begin with a training session introducing environmental satellite capabilities and the data products they provide. Follow-on sessions then will address pre-fire, active-fire, and the post-fire phases of wildland fires. All four sessions will include hands-on exercises for selecting and applying environmental satellite data products used to monitor wildland fire conditions. Certificates of completion will be issued to students who participate in a minimum of 3 training sessions and their participation in each session exceeds one hour. The short course is primarily designed for undergraduate and graduate college students but others who are changing careers or moving to a position requiring increased environmental satellite knowledge will benefit from the course.
Courses & Schedule
- Training Session 1: June 17, 2025, 9 AM - 1 PM EDT
An Introduction to Environmental Satellite Capabilities - Training Session 2: June 18, 2025, 9 AM - 1 PM EDT
The Pre-fire Phase of Wildland Fires - Training Session 3: June 24, 2025, 9 AM - 1 PM EDT
The Post-fire Phase of Wildland Fires - Training Session 4: June 25, 2025, 9 AM - 1 PM EDT
The post-fire Phase of Wildland Fires
Session Description
This session will focus on a general overview of applying satellite capabilities for meteorology. Imagery from multiple geostationary and low-earth orbiting satellites, as well as datasets such as scatterometers, will be discussed. There will be a focus on using satellite data for wildland fire and vegetation monitoring to introduce subsequent training sessions relevant to the overarching Fire Weather theme.
Instructor
Christopher Smith
Faculty Research Assistant Cooperative Institute for Satellite Earth System Studies (CISESS), Earth System Science Interdisciplinary Center (ESSIC), University of Maryland
Christopher Smith is the GOES-R Satellite Liaison for the National Weather Service’s Weather Prediction Center and Ocean Prediction Center. He provides training on new satellite products to meteorologists and delivers feedback to developers to maximize the capabilities of satellites for weather forecasting. Chris received both his B.S. and M.S. in Atmospheric & Oceanic Science from the University of Maryland.
Contact Information
Email: csmith70@umd.edu
Session Description
Our session will focus on the pre-fire conditions which are conducive to wildland fire development. This includes exploring land and atmospheric conditions prevalent in high fire danger environments, walking through specific case studies from impactful fires, and incorporating satellite imagery in the determination of at-risk areas when conditions are favorable Key concepts covered in this session will be an overview of terms and resources associated with wildland fires, the mapping of fuels including seasonal variations with an emphasis on satellite imagery, the process of determining atmospheric conditions conducive to fire ignition such as cloud-to-ground lightning strikes, dry air masses, and strong winds, and the suppression and treatment planning leading up to critical fire weather days.
Instructors
Jim Smith
The Nature Conservancy Project Lead for LANDFIRE
Jim earned a B.S in Timber Management and M.S. Forest Biometrics from the University of Georgia, and a Ph.D. in Forest Biometrics and Remote Sensing from Virginia Tech. Jim spent the next 13 years on the Forestry faculty at Virginia Tech, achieving the rank of Associate Professor. He has served as the Director of Forest Information Systems development for Champion International Paper Company and International Paper Company, and as Forestry/Fire/Ecosystem Management Domain Manager for Space Imaging, Inc. Jim has published in such journals as International Journal of Wildland Fire, Vegetation Classification and Survey, Land, Ecosphere, AIMS Environmental Science, Fire Ecology, Forest Science, Photogrammetric Engineering and Remote Sensing, PLoS One, Canadian Journal of Forest Research and the Canadian Journal of Remote Sensing.
Contact Information
Email: jim_smith@tnc.org
Website: www.landfire.gov
Joseph Patton
Meteorologist & Researcher, University of Maryland in College Park, Maryland.
His current work includes creating training materials and analyzing trends with the Geostationary Lightning Mapper observations. He worked previously as a forecaster and Fire Weather Program Leader for the National Weather Service at the Goodland, Kansas Weather Forecast Office. Joseph holds an M.S. in meteorology from Florida State University and a B.S. in meteorology from the University of Oklahoma.
Contact Information
Email: Joseph.Ray.Patton@gmail.com
Session Description
This session will focus on spaceborne active fire detection. Specifically, we will introduce the newly released NASA Fire Light Detection Algorithm version 2 (FILDA-2) Fire Modified Combustion Efficiency (MCE) product, developed by Meng and his Ph.D. advisor, Dr. Jun Wang. The session will cover the principles behind active fire detection algorithms, an overview of the FILDA-2 algorithm and MCE product, and the influence of atmospheric conditions on fire radiative power (FRP) estimation. We will also provide hands-on training, including how to access the FILDA-2 product through NASA Earthdata Search, map MCE for fire emission estimation, and use VEF for tracking fire progression in high-impact case studies.
Instructor
Dr. Meng Zhou
Assistant Research Scientist; Global Modeling and Data Assimilation Office (GMAO), Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC), the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), Greenbelt, MD and Goddard Earth Sciences Technology and Research (GESTAR) II, at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County (UMBC), Baltimore, MD
Dr. Meng Zhou works for a cooperative agreement between National Aeronautics and Space Administration Goddard Space Flight Center and University of Maryland, Baltimore County. His current work engages in the development of satellite-based biomass burning emission algorithms in support of the GEOS Earth System Model (GEOS-ESM) and NASA’s FireSense Technology program. Meng holds an M.S Information and Communication Engineering, an M.S in Informatics, and a Ph.D. in Geo-informatics from the University of Iowa.
Contact Information
Email: mzhou16@umbc.edu
Session Description
This session will focus on the post fire flash flooding impacts of burned areas in mountainous terrain. First we’ll go through the impacts with test cases. Then we’ll analyze satellite imagery on public web viewers including NASA worldview, CIRA slider and Sentinel hub, to detect these burned areas from polar and geostationary orbits. We will also discuss how this data is used at the NOAA National Weather Service to make flash flood warnings at the local and national levels. And finally we will look at datasets trying to quantify the flash flooding impact for forecasters and current research on the subject.
Instructor
Javier Villegas Bravo
Faculty Specialist at The University of Maryland, Cooperative Institute for Satellite Earth System Studies (CISESS),NOAA National Weather Service Operations Proving Ground Satellite Liaison
Javier Villegas Bravo has a B.S. Atmospheric Sciences, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, M.S. Atmospheric Sciences, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, and is an expert on satellite imaging including wildfire burned area detection and its effect on flash flooding.
Contact Information
Email: javier.a.villegasbravo@noaa.gov