The Experimental Wildfire ABBA (Automated Biomass Burning Algorithm) Fire Product

[from the Wildfire ABBA home page
"http://cimss.ssec.wisc.edu/goes/burn/wfabba.html"]

The experimental Wildfire Automated Biomass Burning Algorithm (WFABBA)
is currently generating half-hourly fire data for the Western
Hemisphere. The geostationary NOAA weather satellite GOES-12 provides
coverage for North and South America while GOES-10 covers North
America only. The WFABBA is an extension of the ABBA,
"http://cimss.ssec.wisc.edu/goes/burn/detection.html".

The results from the WFABBA are typically available within 90 minutes
of the satellite scan time. The GIF images are accessible from the
links available on
"http://cimss.ssec.wisc.edu/goes/burn/wfabba.html". Each link leads to
a page with the most recent image and provides the option to go to
higher-resolution images of different regions as well as loops of the
images covering the last several hours (or days, depending on the
region).

The WFABBA imagery is generated using a modified alpha-blending
technique (see
"http://cimss.ssec.wisc.edu/goes/burn/wfabba/alphablendfaq.html").
Data from the GOES satellites and a landcover map derived from 1-km
resolution Advanced Very High Resolution Radiometer (AVHRR) data
(available "http://edcdaac.usgs.gov/glcc/glcc.html") are used to
produce the combined image, on top of which the fires are placed and
the map and annotations are drawn. Continental overview images have
plotted locations of fires, while regional view images indicate the
individual satellite fire pixels as detected with the WFABBA.

Fires from the WFABBA are divided into six categories: processed fire,
saturated fire pixel, cloudy fire pixel, high possibility fire pixel,
medium possibility fire pixel, and low possibility fire pixel. Data
noise, extremely hot surfaces, and sometimes cloud shadows can give
false alarms for fires. The vast majority of processed fire pixels are
not false alarms.