Satellite Support During the Fire in the Solska Forest
On 6 May 2026, the Crisis Information Centre CBK PAN, as part of the Civil Security Hub Poland, was asked to provide information support during the firefighting efforts in the Solska Forest in the Lubelskie Province. Since yesterday, we have been providing information based on satellite data about the area affected by the fire directly to the State Fire Service.
We used so-called "hotspots" derived from the VIIRS Fire and Thermal Anomalies product, which is based on imagery from NASA/NOAA satellites: Suomi-NPP, NOAA-20, and NOAA-21. A single hotspot is a pixel covering an area of 375 x 375 m on the ground. If an abnormally high surface temperature is detected (even if it is only 1% of this area), the pixel is classified as a hotspot. However, this does not mean that the entire area has been burned. A more accurate estimate of the burned area will be possible once higher-resolution satellite imagery is available.
