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The FIRMS tool is being used by internet sleuths to track the Ukraine-Russia war. NASA created the Fire Information for Resource Management System (FIRMS) NASA has been using satellites to track fires since at least 2000. It aids firefighters and other first responders to identify wildfires across the globe. 

The FIRMS technology

The technology uses NASA satellites with infrared sensors to create heat images.  On the FIRMS website, red dots show up on a Google Earth-type map of the world.  Each dot is a representation of an explosion or a fire that can be pinpointed by zooming in.

Since the Russian invasion of Ukraine, the images show multiple blazes. The line of fires correlates with the front lines of fighting in eastern and southern Ukraine.

 Fires created by the war include shelling, burning munitions depots, and other explosions which generate heat appear on the NASA satellite-directed mapping program.

The Ukraine-Russia conflict may be the first war ever covered in real-time. And FIRMS technology has never before been used to track a conflict at this scale.

Social media, Bellingcat, and Twitter’s Open-Source Intelligence (OSINT) community are vital components assisting the media. And FIRMS is an important part of the tracking tools package.

Methods of compiling and geolocating photographs or videos along with satellite imagery can form a very good picture of what’s happening on the ground.

HIMARS hits show on the map 

With the wildfire tool, you can determine the location of air and artillery strikes. Ukraine’s US-supplied HIMARS rocket artillery systems are often seen on the website hitting Russian military targets.

Two weeks ago, explosions at Saki Air Base in Crimea were noted. If you put the “fire data” with an analysis of videos taken from commercial satellite services like Planet or Airbus you get a more accurate picture.

When a stockpile of munitions or a fuel depot is hit, it burns hot and bright. And the NASA satellites detect and register it as a wildfire. When something on the ground receives artillery hit it only registers if a fire starts.

Watching a war in real-time

FIRMS have limitations. The system is designed and calibrated to find wildfires. Without validation, it doesn’t tell the user what caused the fire.

Open-source sleuths sometimes have to use additional tracking tools to eliminate an actual wildfire, an industrial heat source, or factory a smokestack from military strikes.

Every satellite monitoring the Earth is also impacted by weather. If the satellites pass overhead in the middle of a storm the view is limited.

FIRMS was developed to fight fires. And NASA doesn’t seem interested in upgrading it into a public war tracking tool. But it continues to provide the valuable public insight into one of the most violent conflicts since World War II.