NASA FIRMS

NASA Fire Information for Resource Management System (FIRMS) REST API providing near-real-time satellite fire detections globally from MODIS (Terra/Aqua), VIIRS (S-NPP, NOAA-20, NOAA-21), and LANDSAT instruments. Data is available within 3 hours of satellite observation worldwide, with Ultra Real-Time detections available within 60 seconds for the US and Canada. Supports area-based bounding box queries, KML fire footprints by region, data availability checks, and missing data identification. Free MAP_KEY registration required.

NASA FIRMS publishes 4 API contracts indexed on the APIs.io network, including Area Fire Detections API, Data Availability API, KML Fire Footprints API, and 1 more. Tagged areas include NASA, Fire Detection, Satellite, MODIS, and VIIRS.

The NASA FIRMS catalog on APIs.io includes 1 JSON-LD context and 1 Spectral governance ruleset.

NASA FIRMS’s developer surface includes documentation, getting-started guide, authentication, pricing, engineering blog, and 11 more developer resources.

🌐 Visit website 📡 Profile data on GitHub

38.3/100 thin ▬ flat Agent 28/100 agent aware Front door AI 1/6 silent saas Full breakdown ↓
scored 2026-11-06 · rubric v0.27.0 · Show this score on your site →

AccessFree

1 published contract

NASAFire DetectionSatelliteMODISVIIRSRemote Sensing Open Data Environmental Geospatial Science

Kin Score

Kin Score How this is scored →
scored 2026-11-06 · rubric v0.27.0

Composite quality — 38.3/100 · thin

Contract Quality 12.7 / 21

Developer Ergonomics 6.1 / 17

Access Clarity 4.5 / 17

Operational Transparency 1.2 / 11

Contract Governance 2.4 / 10

Discoverability 4.9 / 9

Regulatory Posture 3.1 / 15

Agent readiness — 28/100 · agent aware

Machine-Readable Contract 18 / 18

Agentic Access Contract 10 / 10

Documented Reversibility 6 / 6

MCP Server 0 / 12

Machine-Readable Auth 10 / 10

Idempotency 9 / 9

Stable Error Semantics 0 / 8

Request/Response Examples 7 / 7

Rate-Limit Signaling 7 / 7

Typed Event Surface 0 / 6

Agent Skills 0 / 5

Well-Known Catalog 0 / 4

Consent & Bot Identity 0 / 3

A2A Agent Card 0 / 8

Dry-Run / Simulate Mode 4 / 4

Delegated User Identity 0 / 6

Protected Resource Metadata 0 / 5

Registration Without a Human 0 / 6

Agentic Commerce Well-Known Document 0 / 5

Pagination 5 / 5

Distinct Operations 3 / 3

MCP Tool Quality 6 / 6

Regulatory Posture applies to this provider. Its tags matched the Government & Public Sector regime, so Regulatory Posture carries 15 points of the composite. If this regime is wrong for your business, say so on your provider repo — the applicability map is public and we will correct it.

Create-or-Update Ergonomics does not apply to this provider. The published contracts declare no write operations, and a read-only API cannot create-or-update. The facet is excluded from this provider's denominator entirely — not scored zero. A reference or data API is not deficient for being unable to upsert.

The six quality facets above are damped to 85 points between them, because the conditional facet above carries the other 15. That is why each facet's contribution is shown against a damped maximum: raising a quality facet moves the composite by 85% of its nominal weight, not 100%. The full arithmetic is at apis.io/rating/.

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Agent readiness — checks not met, largest first (exact, from this profile):

MCP Server +12 pts — deployment.mode + probe verdict on the mcp/ manifest, not the pointer; an unprobed slug falls back to authorship
Stable Error Semantics +8 pts — OpenAPI $refs a shared error schema across 4xx/5xx responses (verified), else common[].type includes ErrorCatalog / ErrorCodes / DeclineCodes
A2A Agent Card +8 pts — a2a/-a2a.yml manifest, graded on conformance.grade against A2A 1.0.0
Registration Without a Human +6 pts — a `registration_endpoint` in the served RFC 8414 / OIDC discovery document
Delegated User Identity +6 pts — a served discovery document listing authorization_code in grant_types_supported (served), else an oauth2 authorizationCode flow or openIdConnect declared in an OpenAPI (documented)
Typed Event Surface +6 pts — AsyncAPI document, OR webhooks/callbacks objects in the as-published OpenAPI, OR common[].type includes Webhooks

5 more unmet checks in the Agent Readiness table above.

Kin Score — facets with the most composite points still available (weight × headroom):

Access Clarity scores 26.3 — up to +14.7 composite points
Developer Ergonomics scores 35.7 — up to +12.9 composite points
Operational Transparency scores 10.5 — up to +11.6 composite points

Each check links to what satisfies it. Publish the artifact, or tell us where it already lives, and the score moves on the next scoring run.

Improve this rating by publishing the missing artifacts — every area above can be raised, and the full rubric is at apis.io/rating/. Every facet and dimension name above is a link: it opens that measurement's own page — what it means, the exact checks that feed it, how the whole catalog distributes on it, and the providers at the top of it. This rating is computed from the provider profile at artifacts.apis.io/nasa-firms/apis.yml: open an issue on github.com/api-evangelist/nasa-firms to ask a question or point us at an artifact you publish. Submit an artifact on GitHub — free → Manage your own listing — the Influence plan, $499/mo →

Markets this provider is in provisional

The Kin Score Market layer reads a provider inside its market: its position, and how deep its integrations go. Depth is only comparable within a position. Provisional and unweighted: not part of the Kin Score or agent readiness.

Market	Position	Depth	Registered MCP server	Declares compatibility
Space and Satellite (operators, earth observation, ground segment)	undeclared	-	-	-

Registered MCP server and declares compatibility are report only — not weighted. Undeclared means we found nothing we can read, so there is no number: we never infer integrations.

Standards implemented 1

Standards this provider implements or carries. De facto ones are profiled and measured by the API Commons; formal ones come from the standards directory and are linked by the provider's own tags. The evidence column says how each claim was established — not that it was made.

OpenAPI

measured — observed by APIs.io (published)

APIs 4

Individual APIs this provider publishes, each with its own machine-readable definition.

NASA FIRMS Area Fire Detections API

Active fire hotspot detections within a bounding box area

NASA FIRMS Data Availability API

Check which dates have Standard Processing or Near Real-Time data

NASA FIRMS KML Fire Footprints API

KMZ files containing color-coded fire footprint polygons by region

NASA FIRMS Missing Data API

Identify dates with absent satellite fire detection data

Open Collections 4

Open, tool-agnostic API collections (OpenAPI-derived and Bruno).

NASA FIRMS Area Fire Detections API

OPEN COLLECTION

NASA FIRMS Area Fire Detections Data Availability API

OPEN COLLECTION

NASA FIRMS Area Fire Detections KML Fire Footprints API

OPEN COLLECTION

NASA FIRMS Area Fire Detections Missing Data API

OPEN COLLECTION

NASA FIRMS API pricing

Not yet checked against NASA FIRMS's own pricing page. Compiled by API Evangelist; confirm before you rely on a figure.

Plan	Price
Free MAP_KEY	—
No Key (KML Footprints Only)	—

Plan details, limits and sources →

Pricing Plans 1

Published pricing tiers and plan structures.

Nasa Firms Plans Pricing

2 plans

PLANS

Rate Limits 1

Documented rate limits and quota policies.

Nasa Firms Rate Limits

1 limits

RATE LIMITS

Service Levels 1

Uptime the provider promises or reports, as SLA4OAI. Read from its own pages; APIs.io runs no monitors.

NASA FIRMS

SLA

FinOps 1

Cost, billing, and metering signals for API financial operations.

Nasa Firms Finops

FINOPS

Semantic Vocabularies 1

JSON-LD contexts and semantic vocabularies used across these APIs.

Nasa Firms Context

0 classes · 3 properties

JSON-LD

Spectral Rules 1

Spectral governance rulesets for linting and validating these APIs.

NASA FIRMS — jsonschema rules

5 rules · 4 warnings 1 info

SPECTRAL

JSON Schema 2

Standalone JSON Schema definitions for this provider's data models.

Data Availability Record

4 properties

JSON SCHEMA

Fire Detection Record

13 properties

JSON SCHEMA

Examples 3

Example request and response payloads for these APIs.

Area Fire Detections Request

5 fields

EXAMPLE

Data Availability Request

5 fields

EXAMPLE

Kml Fire Footprints Request

5 fields

EXAMPLE

Security Posture 1

Authentication, domain security, vulnerability disclosure, and trust-center signals.

Nasa Firms Domain Security

TLSv1.2 · HSTS · DNSSEC · DMARC

SECURITY

Agentic Access 1

Recommended x-agentic-access execution contracts for AI agents.

Nasa Firms Agentic Access

6 operations

6 operations · 0 acting

AGENTIC

Resources

Get Started 1

Portal, sign-up, and the first successful call

GettingStarted

GettingStarted

Documentation 1

Reference material describing how the API behaves

Documentation

Documentation

Agent Surfaces 1

MCP servers, agent skills, and machine-readable catalogs

AgenticAccess

AgenticAccess

Design & Contract 2

Pagination, idempotency, versioning, errors, and events

Vocabulary

Vocabulary

JSONLDContext

JSONLDContext

Build 1

SDKs, sample code, and the tooling you integrate with

GitHubOrg

GitHubOrg

Access & Security 2

Authentication, authorization, and security posture

DomainSecurity

DomainSecurity

Authentication

Authentication

Operate 2

Status, limits, changes, and where to get help

Contact

Contact

RateLimits

RateLimits

Commercial 4

Pricing, plans, and the legal terms of use

TermsOfService

Pricing

Plans

FinOps

Company 2

The organization behind the API

Website

Website

Blog

Blog

Source (apis.yml)

aid: nasa-firms
name: NASA FIRMS
description: 'NASA Fire Information for Resource Management System (FIRMS) REST API providing near-real-time satellite fire
  detections globally from MODIS (Terra/Aqua), VIIRS (S-NPP, NOAA-20, NOAA-21), and LANDSAT instruments. Data is available
  within 3 hours of satellite observation worldwide, with Ultra Real-Time detections available within 60 seconds for the US
  and Canada. Supports area-based bounding box queries, KML fire footprints by region, data availability checks, and missing
  data identification. Free MAP_KEY registration required.

  '
deliveryModel:
  model: saas
  open_source: false
  commercial: true
  callable_host: true
  label: Hosted service · you call their endpoint
  confidence: high
  source:
  - openapi
  - pricing
  generated: '2026-08-28'
  method: derived
accessModel:
  pricing: free
  onboarding: unknown
  trial: false
  try_now: false
  public: false
  label: Free
  confidence: low
  source:
  - plans
  - security
  generated: '2026-11-06'
  method: derived
image: https://kinlane-images.s3.amazonaws.com/shared/apis-json/icons/nasa-firms.png
url: https://raw.githubusercontent.com/api-evangelist/nasa-firms/refs/heads/main/apis.yml
created: '2026-06-13'
modified: '2026-06-13'
specificationVersion: '0.23'
type: Index
tags:
- NASA
- Fire Detection
- Satellite
- MODIS
- VIIRS
- Remote Sensing
- Open Data
- Environmental
- Geospatial
- Science
apis:
- aid: nasa-firms:nasa-firms-area-fire-detections-api
  name: NASA FIRMS Area Fire Detections API
  description: Active fire hotspot detections within a bounding box area
  humanURL: https://firms.modaps.eosdis.nasa.gov/api/area/
  tags:
  - Area Fire Detections
  properties:
  - type: OpenAPI
    url: openapi/nasa-firms-area-fire-detections-api-openapi.yml
  - type: Documentation
    url: https://firms.modaps.eosdis.nasa.gov/api/area/
  - type: JSONSchema
    url: json-schema/fire-detection.json
  - type: Examples
    url: examples/area-fire-detections-request.json
  - type: Examples
    url: examples/area-fire-detections-response.csv
  - type: Documentation
    url: https://firms.modaps.eosdis.nasa.gov/api/kml_fire_footprints/
  - type: Examples
    url: examples/kml-fire-footprints-request.json
  - type: Documentation
    url: https://firms.modaps.eosdis.nasa.gov/api/data_availability/
  - type: JSONSchema
    url: json-schema/data-availability.json
  - type: Examples
    url: examples/data-availability-request.json
  - type: Documentation
    url: https://firms.modaps.eosdis.nasa.gov/api/missing_data/
- aid: nasa-firms:nasa-firms-data-availability-api
  name: NASA FIRMS Data Availability API
  description: Check which dates have Standard Processing or Near Real-Time data
  humanURL: https://firms.modaps.eosdis.nasa.gov/api/area/
  tags:
  - Data Availability
  properties:
  - type: OpenAPI
    url: openapi/nasa-firms-data-availability-api-openapi.yml
  - type: Documentation
    url: https://firms.modaps.eosdis.nasa.gov/api/area/
  - type: JSONSchema
    url: json-schema/fire-detection.json
  - type: Examples
    url: examples/area-fire-detections-request.json
  - type: Examples
    url: examples/area-fire-detections-response.csv
  - type: Documentation
    url: https://firms.modaps.eosdis.nasa.gov/api/kml_fire_footprints/
  - type: Examples
    url: examples/kml-fire-footprints-request.json
  - type: Documentation
    url: https://firms.modaps.eosdis.nasa.gov/api/data_availability/
  - type: JSONSchema
    url: json-schema/data-availability.json
  - type: Examples
    url: examples/data-availability-request.json
  - type: Documentation
    url: https://firms.modaps.eosdis.nasa.gov/api/missing_data/
- aid: nasa-firms:nasa-firms-kml-fire-footprints-api
  name: NASA FIRMS KML Fire Footprints API
  description: KMZ files containing color-coded fire footprint polygons by region
  humanURL: https://firms.modaps.eosdis.nasa.gov/api/area/
  tags:
  - KML Fire Footprints
  properties:
  - type: OpenAPI
    url: openapi/nasa-firms-kml-fire-footprints-api-openapi.yml
  - type: Documentation
    url: https://firms.modaps.eosdis.nasa.gov/api/area/
  - type: JSONSchema
    url: json-schema/fire-detection.json
  - type: Examples
    url: examples/area-fire-detections-request.json
  - type: Examples
    url: examples/area-fire-detections-response.csv
  - type: Documentation
    url: https://firms.modaps.eosdis.nasa.gov/api/kml_fire_footprints/
  - type: Examples
    url: examples/kml-fire-footprints-request.json
  - type: Documentation
    url: https://firms.modaps.eosdis.nasa.gov/api/data_availability/
  - type: JSONSchema
    url: json-schema/data-availability.json
  - type: Examples
    url: examples/data-availability-request.json
  - type: Documentation
    url: https://firms.modaps.eosdis.nasa.gov/api/missing_data/
- aid: nasa-firms:nasa-firms-missing-data-api
  name: NASA FIRMS Missing Data API
  description: Identify dates with absent satellite fire detection data
  humanURL: https://firms.modaps.eosdis.nasa.gov/api/area/
  tags:
  - Missing Data
  properties:
  - type: OpenAPI
    url: openapi/nasa-firms-missing-data-api-openapi.yml
  - type: Documentation
    url: https://firms.modaps.eosdis.nasa.gov/api/area/
  - type: JSONSchema
    url: json-schema/fire-detection.json
  - type: Examples
    url: examples/area-fire-detections-request.json
  - type: Examples
    url: examples/area-fire-detections-response.csv
  - type: Documentation
    url: https://firms.modaps.eosdis.nasa.gov/api/kml_fire_footprints/
  - type: Examples
    url: examples/kml-fire-footprints-request.json
  - type: Documentation
    url: https://firms.modaps.eosdis.nasa.gov/api/data_availability/
  - type: JSONSchema
    url: json-schema/data-availability.json
  - type: Examples
    url: examples/data-availability-request.json
  - type: Documentation
    url: https://firms.modaps.eosdis.nasa.gov/api/missing_data/
common:
- type: AgenticAccess
  url: agentic-access/nasa-firms-agentic-access.yml
- type: DomainSecurity
  url: security/nasa-firms-domain-security.yml
- type: Website
  url: https://firms.modaps.eosdis.nasa.gov/
- type: Documentation
  url: https://firms.modaps.eosdis.nasa.gov/api/
- type: GettingStarted
  url: https://firms.modaps.eosdis.nasa.gov/api/area/
- type: Authentication
  url: https://firms.modaps.eosdis.nasa.gov/api/
- type: GitHubOrg
  url: https://github.com/nasa
- type: TermsOfService
  url: https://www.earthdata.nasa.gov/engage/open-data-services-and-software/data-and-information-policy
- type: Pricing
  url: https://firms.modaps.eosdis.nasa.gov/api/
- type: Blog
  url: https://earthdata.nasa.gov/
- type: Contact
  url: https://firms.modaps.eosdis.nasa.gov/contact/
- type: Plans
  url: plans/nasa-firms-plans-pricing.yml
- type: RateLimits
  url: rate-limits/nasa-firms-rate-limits.yml
- type: FinOps
  url: finops/nasa-firms-finops.yml
- type: Vocabulary
  url: vocabulary/nasa-firms-vocabulary.yml
- type: JSONLDContext
  url: json-ld/nasa-firms-context.jsonld
maintainers:
- FN: Kin Lane
  email: kin@apievangelist.com
x-parent: nasa
x-relationship: product

NASA FIRMS API — frequently asked questions

Does NASA FIRMS have an API?

Yes. APIs.io lists 4 APIs from NASA FIRMS, including NASA FIRMS Area Fire Detections API, NASA FIRMS Data Availability API and NASA FIRMS KML Fire Footprints API, and 1 more.

Is there an OpenAPI specification for the NASA FIRMS API?

Yes. APIs.io indexes 4 OpenAPI specifications for NASA FIRMS, each linked for download from this page.

How do I authenticate with the NASA FIRMS API?

NASA FIRMS uses bearer-token authentication.

How much does the NASA FIRMS API cost?

APIs.io lists 2 pricing plans for NASA FIRMS, with each plan's price, limits and inclusions under Pricing on this page.

Is the NASA FIRMS API ready for AI agents?

NASA FIRMS has a Kin Score of 38.3 out of 100 (thin) and an Agent Readiness score of 28.4 (agent-aware), scored by API Evangelist on 2026-11-06.

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