SDG&E NOAA Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite (GOES) Fire Detection Data

Fire detections from the operational National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite (GOES) satellites. Data published and curated by San Diego Gas & Electric (SDG&E) utility company on San Diego Supercomputer Center (SDSC) servers. Datasets and underpinning Wildfire Automated Biomass Burning Algorithm (WFABBA) algorithm created and developed by Cooperative Institute for Meteorological Satellite Studies (CIMSS), Space Science and Engineering Center (SSEC) at the University of Wisconsin—Madison.

Data and Resources

Additional Info

Field Value
Last Updated September 1, 2025, 05:37 (UTC)
Created August 28, 2025, 06:06 (UTC)
accessRights Refer to license at: https://sdge.sdsc.edu/data/wfabba/LICENSE
creationMethod Datasets were created by applying the Wildfire Automated Biomass Burning Algorithm (WFABBA) algorithm to Advanced Baseline Imager (ABI) infrared imagery from GOES-16, GOES-17, GOES-18, and GOES-19 satellites, to automatically detect and characterize active fire pixels using satellite-based thermal anomaly detection and atmospheric/background corrections.
creatorEmail meteorology@semprautilities.com
creatorName Cooperative Institute for Meteorological Satellite Studies (CIMSS) / Space Science and Engineering Center (SSEC) / University of Wisconsin — Madison
creatorWebsite https://cimss.ssec.wisc.edu/
dataAuthType public
dataType TXT
datasetPageUrl https://wfabba.ssec.wisc.edu/algorithm.html
docsURL https://wfabba.ssec.wisc.edu/algorithm.html
issueDate 2021-01-01
lang en
lastUpdateDate 2025-08-27
license other
pocEmail meteorology@semprautilities.com
pocName San Diego Gas & Electric (SDG&E) Meteorology Team
pocWebsite https://sdgeweather.com/
publisherEmail meteorology@semprautilities.com
publisherName San Diego Gas & Electric (SDG&E) Meteorology Team
publisherWebsite https://sdgeweather.com/
purpose The Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite (GOES) Fire Detections help track all of the fires that occur within the San Diego Gas & Electric (SDG&E) service territory.
status submitted
theme ["fire-detections","satellite-imagery"]
updateFreq Anytime a fire has been detected by the algorithm
uploadType dataset
usageInfo The GOES Fire Detection data include historical and current-year wildfire data from GOES satellites. For years prior to the current one (e.g., 2024, 2023), data are conveniently packaged into a single .zip archive for each satellite (e.g., 2024.zip), available for direct download from the satellite's main folder (e.g., 'goes-16') within https://sdge.sdsc.edu/data/wfabba/. The full annual zip archive for the current year will not be available until the year is complete. To access in-progress data for the current year, users must retrieve the daily .txt files they specifically need. This can be done either by manually navigating the date-stamped sub-folders within each satellite's main folder or by implementing a web scraper for bulk retrieval. NOTE: All programmatic access is subject to the SDG&E data license, which users must review and adhere to before developing or using any automated data collection tools.