Southern Georgia Fires
Earlier this week, the National Weather Service (NWS) Atlanta, Georgia, posted a social media infographic describing the significant drought conditions across the state of Georgia, where approximately 90% of the state experienced severe to exceptional drought (i.e., D2 to D4 on the drought intensity scale). Subsequently, these conditions were conducive to fire initiation and spread, where two fires, the Pineland Road Fire and the Brantley Highway 82 Fire, erupted over southern Georgia. The two fires have scorched thousands of acres, forced road closures, and destroyed infrastructure. As of 23 April 2026, the Pineland Road Fire burned ~30,000 acres and the Brantley Highway 82 Fire burned ~4,400 acres (per Watch Duty).
High temporal resolution geostationary satellites observed the fires and corresponding smoke plumes during the afternoon of 21 April 2026. Pictured below, an Advanced GeoColor product named ‘GeoFire’, blends the GeoColor and Fire Temperature products together, where the product imagery depicts the fire hotspots and intensities (i.e., red, orange, yellow and white pixels) while also observing the aerosols and clouds during the daytime. The product is currently accessible on CIRA SLIDER and has a one kilometer spatial resolution.
GOES-19 ABI GeoFire Product observations from 15-20Z, 21 April 2026
At ~19Z, 21 April 2026, a satellite imagery comparison between the GOES-19 ABI Day Fire RGB and the VIIRS Day Fire RGB is shown below. The GOES RGB version exhibits a coarser 2-km spatial resolution compared to 375-m, provided by VIIRS. Although having a coarser temporal resolution, the VIIRS Day Fire RGB depicts the finer details of the active fires (red pixels), the fire perimeter, along with smoke (blue) and clouds (cyan). Enhanced resolution of the rivers, lakes and vegetation can be seen as well.
GOES-19 ABI Day Fire RGB and NOAA-21 VIIRS Day Fire RGB at ~19Z, 21 April 2026
One way users can observe fires at night is via the VIIRS Nighttime Microphysics RGB. The RGB’s main application is to identify cloud types from the low, middle and upper parts of the atmosphere, however, the RGB contains secondary applications, such as fire hotspot detection. At 750-m spatial resolution, fires are captured in dark magenta colors in contrast to the light pink, land surface background. Note, the RGB includes the 3.7 um, that is incorporated into a brightness temperature difference within the green spectra of the dataset. A VIIRS Nighttime Microphysics RGB animation observes the fire hotspots within the white boxes, during the early morning hours of 23 April 2026.
VIIRS Nighttime Microphysics RGB from 0700-0750Z, 23 April 2026