NASA’s FIRMS wildfire tracking tool is being used to track Russia-Ukraine War

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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.