01 / 14Where the data comes from
The record carries 3 fields
Where it came fromNASA satellite feed
When we fetched it14:22:07
Who published itNASA FIRMS
Stage 01
Getting the data in
Where the data comes from
42 government feeds
Why this step exists
Because nobody has all the information. It is scattered across satellites, weather services and fire agencies in two countries.
The system is plugged into 42 official data feeds — satellites that spot heat, weather services, fire agencies, drought monitors and maps of what is on the ground. It checks them on a schedule, day and night.
What moves through
- In
- A satellite passes over northern British Columbia and spots a hot patch of ground. NASA publishes it a few minutes later.
- Out
- The file exactly as NASA sent it, plus a note of when we asked for it.
The rule that protects this
Before anything is downloaded, somebody has written down who owns this feed, what we are allowed to do with it, and how out-of-date it is allowed to get.
Who does this
The download itself is automatic and runs on a timer.
What the record holds by now
Where it came fromNASA satellite feed
When we fetched it14:22:07
Who published itNASA FIRMS
01 / 14 · Where the data comes from · 1/7
Wildfire Ahead · the data journey
What this system is for
When a wildfire starts, nobody has the whole picture. A satellite sees a hot patch of ground. A camera on a ridge sees smoke. A member of the public phones it in. A weather service says the wind is about to turn.
Somebody has to turn all of that into one answer — is this real, what is at risk, what should we look at first — fast enough to matter, and with the working shown so a fire chief can argue with it. That is what this platform does. It is not a fire map and it does not fight fires, and it never decides anything itself.
You are about to follow one satellite sighting, from 14:22 over northern British Columbia, through all fourteen steps: what happens at each one, which people touch it, and what it picks up along the way. Watch the counter on the left — the record only ever gains information, and nothing already on it is edited. That one property is what lets anybody, two years later, reconstruct exactly what was known at 14:22.
Every word here is written twice: switch between Plain language and Technical whenever you like. Space plays and pauses, ← → step through the messages, ↑ ↓ travel between stages, and the path map at the top right jumps straight to any of them.