[HN Gopher] Visualize active fires around the world with Javascript
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       Visualize active fires around the world with Javascript
        
       Author : alagrede
       Score  : 51 points
       Date   : 2022-09-05 09:37 UTC (13 hours ago)
        
 (HTM) web link (blog.znote.io)
 (TXT) w3m dump (blog.znote.io)
        
       | vie00001 wrote:
       | OT: do you have an opinion on these horizontal scrollbars? But
       | it's not really a scrollbar, more like an indicator how far you
       | have scrolled in the article.
        
       | samuelstros wrote:
       | Besides the article, znote is interesting. I was wondering why no
       | JS notebook, similar to Jupyter notebooks exists.
       | 
       | That said, to build a JS data science ecosystem, znote would need
       | to be open source. I assume that would hinder your monetization
       | efforts.
        
         | ObiWanFrijoles wrote:
         | Observable [0] seems to be inspired by Jupyter. I haven't had a
         | chance to use it though. It looks like some of its core
         | features are open source [1]
         | 
         | [0] https://observablehq.com/
         | 
         | [1] https://github.com/observablehq
        
           | samuelstros wrote:
           | I tried observable but a) I'd like to have the source files
           | in git for version control + CI/CD. b) They use a special
           | flavour of JS which I have no interest in learning.
           | 
           | The best solution I found was VSCode TS notebook
           | https://github.com/DonJayamanne/typescript-notebook. However,
           | ESM and notebook scoped package installations are not
           | supported, along with some bugs.
        
       | shae wrote:
       | I thought this was visualizing people getting fired, oops.
        
         | TechBro8615 wrote:
         | I thought it was visualizing fires caused by JavaScript!
        
       | ricardobeat wrote:
       | This is really interesting, but where is the interactive version?
       | All I see is code and static images.
        
         | GrumpyNl wrote:
         | The code is there for you to make interactive versions.
        
       | bufferoverflow wrote:
       | Red on yellow with black borders is not a great choice of colors.
       | Remember, your goal is to visualize.
        
       | Gys wrote:
       | Data from Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS)
       | 
       | Wikipedia: a satellite-based sensor used for earth and climate
       | measurements. They capture data in 36 spectral bands ranging in
       | wavelength from 0.4 mm to 14.4 mm and at varying spatial
       | resolutions (2 bands at 250 m, 5 bands at 500 m and 29 bands at 1
       | km). Together the instruments image the entire Earth every 1 to 2
       | days.
       | 
       | I looked this up because I want to know fires too close by.
       | Updates every 1 to 2 days is not very useful for that.
       | 
       | In Portugal there is https://fogos.pt/ which is updated very
       | frequently.
        
         | defrost wrote:
         | You can get (raw) data as the satellites (on precessing near
         | earth polar otbits) pass over .. otherwise you wait until they
         | next pass over, whether in the US or Portugal.
         | 
         | Processed data for the past 24 hours is available, it may be 18
         | hours "old" though.
         | 
         | See: (for regular processed products)
         | 
         | * https://firms.modaps.eosdis.nasa.gov/active_fire/
         | 
         | *
         | https://firms.modaps.eosdis.nasa.gov/api/kml_fire_footprints...
         | 
         | And here for 'Ultra Real Time' over the US | Canada
         | 
         | * https://wiki.earthdata.nasa.gov/display/FIRMS/2022/07/14/
         | 
         | elsewhere you'd have to contact your local ground station and
         | geolocate + bandprocess the raw data as it beams in if you want
         | Ultra Real Time.
         | 
         | ( Hexagon sell a product that can do this if you're not up to
         | writing your own )
        
       | tpmx wrote:
       | Thanks for mentioning Javascript in the title. That's not very
       | common in posts about Javascript, here.
        
       | ravenstine wrote:
       | Very cool! Visualizations of data are very important for helping
       | people understand what's significant.
       | 
       | Years ago I worked on a (now defunct) site for a local NPR
       | station in SoCal that displayed information on fires going on in
       | California, and I incorporated geometry from satellites (MODIS
       | and I think something called VIIRS) to implement a fire spread
       | animation. The user could press a play button and see how the
       | fire spread over time.
       | 
       | In retrospect, that feature is kind of like watching car crashes
       | on replay, but I was and am nevertheless proud to have worked on
       | something like that.
       | 
       | The site is no longer working, but I saved a video of it:
       | 
       | https://youtu.be/HMzXNWiIC8k
       | 
       |  _EDIT: There were much more interesting spread animations than
       | that but this video is all I have_
        
       | egberts1 wrote:
       | What is really interesting is why are there fires during winter
       | months in Southern Hemisphere and why are these fires
       | predominately more denser in colder hemisphere than the hottest
       | part of its northern hemisphere counterpart?
        
         | sharatvir wrote:
         | Not an expert but it could be that those regions have more
         | extreme wet/dry cycles, whereas the hottest parts of North
         | America are deserts without much vegetation.
        
         | [deleted]
        
         | dbetteridge wrote:
         | Well in Australia for examples that's when fire control
         | measures are done, during the wetter and cooler months there
         | are controlled burns to reduce the amount of flammable material
         | on the ground.
         | 
         | e.g. https://www.dfes.wa.gov.au/hazard-
         | information/bushfire/plann...
        
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       (page generated 2022-09-05 23:02 UTC)