Wildfire AI & Mapping

Were flaws in AI Analytics or Satellite Mapping Significant to California Wildfire Response issues in January 2025? Or Unrelated?

Map courtesy of NASA VIIRS (NOAA-20/JPSS-1) I Band 375 m Active Fire Product NRT data


We don't know the answer to that question, or if that question is even being asked in the wake of these tragic fires. Or in preparation for new wildfires.


The above screenshop is from a  (NASA) Fire Information for Resource Management System (FIRMS) Fire Map view we generated on January 29, 2025; derived from near real-time data displaying fire radiative power (FRP). FIRMS uses data from NASA's MODIS and VIIRS satellites to detect active fires or developing hotspots, that emergency crews use for their response. 


But there were 17 fires in California on that day. Not two. And not all of Florida or Cuba were at fire risk. Illustrating how critical is the need for additional drone and low-altitude surveillance, fed into AI master analytics and mapping systems. 

Here are two other views, to contrast with FIRMS

The map below, on the left, shows the Florida Department of Agriculture's "Wildland Fire Danger Index," on January 29, 2025. "Moderate" fire risk is the stage just before a Red Flag warning being issued. The map on the lower right, from July 2024, is a fire risk map based on heat index and weather conditions; illustrating how even in low winter temperatures, moderate fire risk remains in many US areas that is almost as high as risk during extreme summer temperatures. 

Can AI - if equipped with adequate parameters and capabilities to teach itself, become less of  simple search and mapping tool, and more of a solution designer, offering US leaders and policy makers the insight into the inter-related causes of increasing wildfires, and the vision into the governance, cultural, and policy changes needed to reverse this trend? 

Thus far, there is little if any correlation or AI 'systems' application put into management of multiple factors under multiple jurisdictional control, that impact wildfires: e.g. sales of bottled water that deplete acquifers (rather than reuse that recycles water); zoning, construction, and energy laws or policies that create 'heat islands,' as Florida is now coping with in its urban coastal areas; pesticide and agricultural practices; personal and energy plant water use; and even energy consumption needed for AI and crypto applications.

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