For the past three years, scientists at NOAA’s Atlantic Oceanographic and Meteorological Laboratory (AOML) and the Cooperative Institute for Marine and Atmospheric Science have been uncovering the secrets behind the extraordinary resilience of corals in PortMiami. Now, you can dive into their groundbreaking research like never before with a new virtual reality experience, Unlocking the Secrets of Resilient Corals—filmed by communications intern, Alexandra Ceurvorst, as a component of her Master of Professional Science degree from the University of Miami.
Take a dive (live) in NOAA's Lake Ontario National Marine Sanctuary
The 135-foot, three-masted schooner St. Peter is one of the most impressive recreationally accessible shipwrecks in Lake Ontario National Marine Sanctuary. (Image credit: National Marine Sanctuaries)
The public is invited to join NOAA virtually and be among the first to explore never-before-seen shipwrecks in Lake Ontario National Marine Sanctuary. During the expedition, NOAA scientists and partners will deploy a remotely operated vehicle (ROV) outfitted with a high-definition camera and other technologies to survey and document the sanctuary's shipwrecks.
NOAA plane WP-3D Orion, also known as "Miss Piggy," does a flyby of NOAA Ship "Rainier" during dive operations and hydrographic mapping work in the Northern Mariana Islands. (Image credit: NOAA/LT Dylan Kosten)
NOAA provides numerous educational and professional opportunities to engage with the public and train the future workforce to enable NOAA science, service, and stewardship. One of those opportunities is the Knauss Fellowship that places highly qualified graduate students in offices throughout the legislative and executive branches of the government to support marine policy decisions affecting ocean, coastal and Great Lakes resources. Get to know the Knauss Fellows from the 2025 cohort in NOAA Marine and Aviation Operations.
Less than a year after being evaluated in NOAA’s Fire Weather Testbed, the automated satellite fire detection capability of the experimental Next Generation Fire System offsite link (NGFS) has been embraced by the firefighting community and is being increasingly integrated into operations across the country.
The first of two key features of the revolutionary system are the Advanced Baseline Imager, the primary instrument on NOAA’s two GOES geostationary satellites orbiting 22,000 miles above the equator. The second is a set of NGFS algorithms that continuously comb through enormous volumes of data generated by the imager and automatically identifies heat anomalies or hot spots, even through clouds and smoke.
Any new sources of heat are overlaid on surface imagery and geolocated. Then an alert is sent instantly to an online dashboard offsite link so users can easily visualize the location. Once a fire is detected, the system tracks and records the fire’s spread and intensity. The information is simultaneously available to weather forecasters, fire dispatchers and first responders. Getting firefighters on a fire before it becomes big increases the chances for a successful initial attack.
“NGFS can provide alerts in as little as one minute from the time the energy from the fire reaches the satellite,” said Mike Pavolonis, NOAA Satellites’ Wildland Fire Program manager, who is leading the research and development effort. “I've seen NGFS alerts for fires as small as a quarter acre.”
Real-life proof of concept
During the recent Oklahoma wildfire outbreak, state officials said GOES satellites provided initial detection on 19 separate fires. Of those, preliminary analysis of fire spread modeling found that rapid firefighter response likely saved more than $850 million dollars worth of structures and property.
“The amount of damage that NGFS helped firefighters prevent during this single outbreak was 250 times greater than the cost of developing this system," Pavolonis said. The total cost of NGFS development was under $3 million. The National Weather Service anticipates that this system will continue to pay dividends and save lives, particularly in areas prone to severe fires where early detection is critical.
Multiple potential wildfire starts in California detected by NOAA’s Next Generation Fire System on April 30, 2025, are displayed on this California Office of Emergency Services dashboard.
(Image credit: Courtesy of California Office of Emergency Services)
Where the new system is already in use
Ninety percent of the National Weather Service's 122 Weather Forecast Offices around the country have subscribed to the NGFS feed since it became available in February. Forecast offices in California, Oregon, New Mexico, Texas, Oklahoma, Nebraska and North Carolina have used it so far this year.
The California Office of Emergency Services (Cal OES) is using NGFS to improve situational awareness, and displays NGFS fire detections on its Statewide Initial Attack Viewer offsite link.
The satellites’ stationary positions allows the system to scan new imagery over an area covering multiple states every minute, and generates a fresh image of the entire contiguous U.S. every five minutes.
“Lives can be saved or lost from what you learn in minutes or even seconds,” said Todd Lindley, Science and Operations Officer with the Norman Weather Forecast Office in Oklahoma, which relied on the system during the spring wildfire outbreak.
Once a fire is burning, NGFS provides real-time weather and fire monitoring needed by fire incident management teams to keep firefighters safe.
What’s next for NGFS
This week, NGFS undergoing a second evaluation in the Fire Weather Testbed, which is managed by the Global Systems Laboratory in Boulder, Colorado. Zach Tolby, the Fire Weather Testbed Manager, said the follow-up visit is designed to evaluate how to best send NGFS fire detections directly to land management partners across the western U.S. During the first test in June 2024, NOAA scientists evaluated routing NGFS detections through NWS offices, which would issue hotspot notifications to partner agencies.
NGFS was developed by NOAA Satellites and CIMSS offsite link, NOAA’s cooperative institute with the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
"The rapid adoption of NGFS demonstrates its significant value to meteorologists,” Tolby said. “Now we want to look for ways to optimize the system for wildland fire management in the field."
