GIS - Southern France Wildfire

NASA’s ECOSTRESS Wildfire Observation Featured on NASA Homepage

For over a month, NASA highlighted this ECOSTRESS product on its public homepage to recognize its value in real-time wildfire monitoring and international emergency response.

On August 6, 2025, the ECOSTRESS (ECOsystem Spaceborne Thermal Radiometer Experiment on Space Station) instrument acquired high-resolution thermal imagery of an active wildfire front in the Aude department of southern France. The imagery showed land surface temperatures during a peak growth phase of the fire, with values ranging from elevated background temperatures to very hot active-fire pixels.

Because ECOSTRESS can measure land surface temperature and plant stress from the International Space Station, these data were shared as a critical reference layer for the France Fire Department and regional incident teams. The product supported:

• Rapid assessment of where the fire was hottest
• Better understanding of fire behavior across mixed terrain
• Communication of fireline location and severity to decision makers
• Broader demonstration of space-based thermal data for disaster management

This feature also illustrated ECOSTRESS’s broader mission: using thermal imaging to track water stress, agricultural impacts, urban heat, and extreme events from space.

Why It Was Recognized

• Placed on the NASA homepage for >1 month as an example of actionable Earth-observing science
• Demonstrated ISS-based thermal sensing for an ongoing emergency, not just retrospective science
• Created in collaboration with NASA JPL, ECOSTRESS science team, and a student contributor from Arnold O. Beckman High School

Research Image

ECOSTRESS thermal map of the August 6, 2025 southern France wildfire, featured on the NASA homepage for over a month and used by France Fire Department as a situational layer. Image credit: NASA / JPL-Caltech / ECOSTRESS.