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The 2026 – 1st Quarter Release of fire extent and burn severity data includes map products from several programs.

  • Monitoring Trends in Burn Severity (MTBS) project data have been released for 645 newly mapped fires from the 2023 (482), 2024 (147) and 2025 (16) fire seasons. The total number of mapped products released by the program is now 30,390.
  • The Burned Area Emergency Response (BAER) project has released fire maps for 42 fires developed by the Department of Interior from the 2025.
  • The U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service (FWS) project has released fire perimeters for National Wildlife Refuges in Alaska.  This data set includes 481 geospatial vector polygons of historic fire perimeters associated with National Wildlife Refuges in Alaska from the years 1951-2021.
  • The National Park Service (NPS) project has released 21 new fire datasets for the years 2022, 2023, 2024, and 2025. The project has also made updates to 11 fire datasets from previous seasons.
  • The Provisional Initial Assessment (PIA) project has released data for 17 fires from 2025 on the Burn Severity Portal Viewer that were previously released for direct download in Quarters 3 and 4 of 2025.
  • The Rapid Assessment of Vegetation Condition After Wildfire (RAVG) project has released fire maps produced by the USFS for 179 fires that occurred from 2007, 2008, 2024 and 2025 fire seasons.  There were also 9 fire maps produced by the DOI from the 2024 and 2025 season included with this release.
  • The Flint Hills Prairie Fires project has released 5 sets of perimeters from the 2025 prescribed fire season.

The data can be found on the Burn Severity Portal (BSP) website and associated BSP interactive viewer.

In addition to this latest data release, the program has migrated to a new product development and distribution system.  Previously, map product development and distribution systems were separated.  The old map product development involved Commercial-off-the-shelf tools including ERDAS Imagine and ESRI’s ArcPro software and open-source database software to manage files.  The distribution system was separate and the process to release data to the public was lengthy.  The new system uses open-source database and desktop mapping software to order imagery, develop map products and distribute maps products in one system.  These modernizations should reduce the time between completion of mapping and product release.

New Features

As a result of these technological modernizations, users will find some new features.  First, access to program data has been consolidated to two locations.  The Burn Severity Viewer is now the central location for interactive viewing and downloading of map products for all programs.  This location is a great option if you’re in search of data for selected local areas.

For regional analysis needs, mosaicked raster products from the MTBS and RAVG programs can be accessed from Direct Download | Burn Severity Portal.  Also, national vector datasets (points and polygons) can also be downloaded for the MTBS Program and for all programs.

Map Services have also been updated and can be accessed using the information found on Direct Download | Burn Severity Portal.

Analysts no longer work to complete mapping of one fire season before moving to the next. Instead, the program is taking a hierarchical prioritization approach mapping fire across several years concurrently, as well as continuing historical additions and revisions for when better image options are discovered. The mapping of several fire seasons simultaneously results in fire mappings potentially being released for multiple years at each release iteration.

Improvements

Consistent Input Imagery

The MTBS team has reprocessed the entire mapping archive to account for historical Landsat baseline changes, minor discrepancies and anomalies, and to refresh the raster-based analysis data as part of this technology update.  Input imagery to produce the map products have all been ordered and processed using a contemporary system using consistent methods. All satellite imagery used to map MTBS, BAER, RAVG, PIA and NPS and Undersized fires have been ordered and processed via Google Earth Engine between late November and December 2025.

Improved Data Access

Users now have more options for product downloads from the interactive viewer and the direct download page.  The direct download web page allows a user to download raster mosaics and program shapefiles with a few mouse clicks and entering their e-mail address.

Users now have more options to prepare the products for their applications using the Direct Downloads tool.  Users can customize their download by selecting only the specific datasets they want and choosing either Albers or local UTM map projection.

Users can now select fires to download by Forest Service and Department of the Interior Regions or by USFS Forest in addition to states, counties and watersheds from the original viewer.

Deprecations

The MTBS Interactive Viewer and Direct Download | MTBS tools for bundles and mosaics have been integrated into the Direct Download | Burn Severity Portal page.  Map services have been removed and can be found at Direct Download | Burn Severity Portal on the map services tab.

Known issues

Previously, the MTBS program team developed and distributed products using NAD 1983 USGS Albers map projections.  With this new technological refresh, products will be developed using source data’s native projection local WGS84 UTM.  Users will be able to download products using the local UTM or have the data reprojected to USGS Albers NAD83.  Please be aware, these updates and reprojection processes may create subtle changes in the way products appear.

Mapped area:

Previously, the MTBS team calculated mapped acreage based on the Albers projection raster products. See FAQ related to this (link).  Area for fire products has been recalculated using the native UTM projection during reprocessing. This will result in minor differences in the mapped acreage in earlier products. Although the burn area boundary was not altered, the number of pixels intersected by the burn area boundary in the new projection may have. Therefore, some mappings will have a slight difference in mapped area.

Severity differences:

Since the imagery has been reprocessed using contemporary calibration metrics, there are differences in the digital numbers in each of the bands from the original imagery used to create legacy products.  Users are cautioned that there will be differences in severity products between legacy and contemporary products for individual pixels.

Coming soon

The current plan for the program is to adhere to the quarterly product release cycle for short term. The program is considering more frequent product releases, so stay tuned for more information regarding more frequent product releases.

Feedback

Please know that your feedback is valuable to the program.  Share using the Contact Us form on Burn Severity Portal.