System architecture

Weather: observations and forecasts

• NWS APIPublicNOAA / National Weather Service

  REST, GeoJSON-LD. GET /points/{lat},{lon} resolves the grid, then /gridpoints/{wfo}/{x},{y}/forecast and /alerts/active?area=CO. Hourly forecast updates; User-Agent header required, no key.

  https://www.weather.gov/documentation/services-web-api
• NWS Spot Forecast ProgramPublicNOAA / NWS

  Incident-specific request (STQ) in, forecaster-written spot forecast out; GeoJSON feed refreshed ~15 min plus an ArcGIS MapServer of active spots.

  https://spot.weather.gov/
• Synoptic Data Weather API (MesoWest)Free keySynoptic Data PBC

  REST. GET /v2/stations/timeseries?network=2&token=... (network 2 = RAWS) or /stations/latest; JSON/CSV/GeoJSON; sub-hourly RAWS observations. Free public-data tier, paid tiers above.

  https://docs.synopticdata.com/services/weather-api
• FEMS (NFDRS, replaced WIMS in 2024)PublicUSDA Forest Service

  Read-only REST for hourly NFDRS v4 outputs (ERC, BI, dead/live fuel moistures) and station obs; gov login for write paths.

  Exact OpenAPI path not verifiable at review time.

  https://www.wildfire.gov/application/fems

Satellite thermal detections

• NASA FIRMS Area APIFree keyNASA LANCE

  REST. GET /api/area/csv/{MAP_KEY}/VIIRS_NOAA20_NRT/{w,s,e,n}/{days}; VIIRS 375 m, MODIS, and GOES sources; CSV/JSON; NRT latency ~60-180 min; 5,000 transactions per 10 min per key.

  This is the API behind the map’s Active fire (VIIRS) data layer, represented with simulated 375 m detections in this build.

  https://firms.modaps.eosdis.nasa.gov/api/area/
• NASA FIRMS US/CanadaFree keyNASA LANCE / USDA Forest Service

  Same Area API on a separate US/Canada instance fed by direct-readout ground stations: real-time and ultra-real-time VIIRS/MODIS detections — under a minute after overpass for much of the US and Canada — plus Landsat 30 m detections within ~30 min of overpass.

  The initial-attack feed: the global NRT window above collapses to minutes here, and Canada is covered at the same grade. This instance, not the global one, is what a production build over this corridor would ingest.

  https://firms2.modaps.eosdis.nasa.gov/usfs/api/area/
• GOES-18/19 ABI L2 Fire (FDC)PublicNOAA (Open Data Dissemination on AWS)

  Anonymous S3, NetCDF objects (s3://noaa-goes18/ABI-L2-FDCC/...): fire mask, FRP, temperature per ~2 km pixel; CONUS every 5 min, mesoscale 1 min.

  https://registry.opendata.aws/noaa-goes/

Copernicus Sentinel imagery

• Copernicus Data Space Ecosystem APIsFree keyESA / European Commission

  Free registration, OAuth2 token. STAC catalogue for search, OData for download, openEO for cloud processing, and Sentinel Hub Process/Statistical APIs (POST an evalscript, get rendered raster or stats). Sentinel-2 revisit ~5 days; free quota, commercial tiers.

  https://documentation.dataspace.copernicus.eu/APIs.html

Wind and point forecasts (Windy)

• Windy Point Forecast APICommercialWindy.com / Windyty SE

  POST /api/point-forecast/v2 with JSON {lat, lon, model (gfs/ecmwf/iconEu), parameters, key}; JSON time series out; model steps 6-12 h. Trial plus paid Professional subscription.

  https://api.windy.com/point-forecast/docs
• Windy Webcams / Map Forecast APIsCommercialWindy.com

  REST GET /webcams/api/v3/webcams?nearby={lat},{lng},{radius} with x-windy-api-key; embeddable interactive map layers via the Map Forecast API.

  https://api.windy.com/webcams/docs

Synoptic guidance and model inputs

• SPC Fire Weather OutlooksPublicNOAA / Storm Prediction Center

  Day 1-2 fire weather outlooks (Day 3-8 probabilistic) with Elevated / Critical / Extremely Critical areas; shapefile/KML downloads plus an ArcGIS MapServer; issued twice daily.

  https://www.spc.noaa.gov/products/fire_wx/
• NWS NDFDPublicNOAA / NWS

  2.5 km CONUS gridded forecast elements (wind, gusts, RH, temperature, sky); GRIB2 via tgftp and AWS Open Data; out to 7 days.

  https://vlab.noaa.gov/web/mdl/ndfd
• HRRR on AWSPublicNOAA (Open Data Dissemination on AWS)

  Anonymous S3 (s3://noaa-hrrr-bdp-pds), GRIB2 plus Zarr; 3 km convection-allowing model, hourly cycles, 18 h forecasts (48 h at 00/06/12/18Z).

  https://registry.opendata.aws/noaa-hrrr-pds/
• WFAS / NFDRS fire dangerPublicUSDA Forest Service

  Daily national fire danger class and dead fuel moisture maps as rendered images and grids; no formal REST API.

  FEMS (under Weather above) is the station-level NFDRS source of record.

  https://www.wfas.net/
• NFPORS fuels treatmentsPublicDOI / USGS

  ArcGIS REST treatment polygons and points with kind, status, and fiscal year; the production analog of the mitigation-plan overlays this demo reuses.

  https://usgs.nfpors.gov/

Incidents and fire perimeters

• NIFC Open Data / WFIGSPublicNational Interagency Fire Center

  ArcGIS FeatureServer REST: GET .../FeatureServer/0/query?where=1=1&outFields=*&f=geojson. Current perimeters refresh ~5 min; full interagency perimeter history; incident points via the public IRWIN views.

  The one real feed in this build (historic burn scar layer).

  https://data-nifc.opendata.arcgis.com/
• IRWINRestrictedDOI / USDA interagency

  System-to-system incident data exchange between wildfire applications (CAD, WFDSS, INFORM); GeoPlatform account plus approved integration. Public consumption goes through the WFIGS views above.

  https://www.wildfire.gov/application/irwin-integrated-reporting-wildfire-information
• InciWebPublicUS Forest Service

  RSS 2.0 incident and news feeds plus KML; PIO-entered, irregular cadence (hours). No formal API.

  https://inciweb.wildfire.gov/feeds

Fuels and terrain

• LANDFIRE Product Service (LFPS)PublicUSGS / USFS

  ArcGIS geoprocessing job API: submit AOI + layer list (FBFM40 fuel models, canopy, slope, aspect), poll job status, download GeoTIFF bundle; products versioned, updated annually or biennially.

  This build bakes fuels from an unmodified public FBFM40 stand-in (The Wildland Almanac CONUS v2026.1, CC BY 4.0) and re-points to LANDFIRE with one URL change in the fetch script.

  https://lfps.usgs.gov/LFProductsServiceUserGuide.pdf
• USGS 3DEP / EPQS elevationPublicUSGS

  REST GET /v1/json?x={lon}&y={lat}&units=Meters for point queries; 3DEP dynamic ImageServer/WCS for DEM tiles; lidar-based 1 m where available.

  The baked terrain grids in this build come from the Open-Elevation public API (SRTM-derived).

  https://epqs.nationalmap.gov/v1/docs

WUI parcels and structures

• County open data (e.g. Jefferson County CO)PublicCounty GIS

  ArcGIS Hub GeoServices REST, WMS, WFS; parcel polygons with assessor attributes and the Master Address layer this demo already bakes; typically weekly refresh.

  https://data-jeffersoncounty.opendata.arcgis.com/
• Building footprints (Microsoft / Overture)PublicMicrosoft; Overture Maps Foundation

  Bulk line-delimited GeoJSON by quadkey (Microsoft Global ML Building Footprints) or GeoParquet on S3 queryable with DuckDB (Overture, which conflates Google + Microsoft + OSM); periodic static releases.

  https://docs.overturemaps.org/guides/buildings/

CAD, dispatch, and unit alerting (private integrations)

• Tyler New World / CentralSquare (Zuercher) CADRestrictedTyler Technologies; CentralSquare

  Per-agency contracts; CAD-to-CAD interfaces and standard exporter push feeds (XML/JSON on unit status change); integration specs under NDA. This is where dispatch notes and unit statuses originate.

  https://www.tylertech.com/products/enterprise-erp/api-catalog
• Active911 Open APICommercialActive911 Inc.

  OAuth 2.0 with per-agency grants; HTTPS POST to access.active911.com/interface/open_api.php; JSON alerts, personnel responses, and map data pushed on dispatch.

  https://github.com/active911/open-api

GPS / AVL resource tracking

• WFTAK (Wildland Fire TAK)RestrictedUSDA Forest Service, Fire and Aviation Management

  Near-real-time resource location server built on TAK. Merges phones and crew tablets running ATAK/iTAK, USFS and DOI vehicle locators, satellite handhelds, and aircraft ADS-B into one picture; clients exchange Cursor on Target (CoT) over the WFTAK server.

  The federal answer to the Dingell Act (2019) requirement that resource locations on federal incidents be known. Users can stop sharing by closing TAK; it is not a disciplinary tool.

  https://wftak.wildfire.gov/pages/location-sharing-wftak
• TAK ServerPublicTAK Product Center

  Open-source Java server for Cursor on Target: CoT XML/protobuf position and marker events streamed over TLS, plus a REST/Swagger API on 8443. The same server type an agency or county could stand up for non-federal incidents.

  https://github.com/TAK-Product-Center/Server
• Garmin inReach IPC OutboundCommercialGarmin

  Satellite (Iridium) handheld tracking pushed as JSON to an agency web service: WGS84 lat/lon, altitude, course, speed per tracking point. Professional accounts only; covers crews working outside cell and radio coverage.

  https://developer.garmin.com/inReach/IPC_Outbound.pdf
• Samsara Vehicle Locations FeedCommercialSamsara

  REST. GET /fleet/vehicles/locations/feed with a bearer token; lat/lon, heading, speed, UTC time; cursor-based feed (poll the endCursor, at least 5 s between empty pages). One example of vehicle-borne GPS on apparatus.

  https://developers.samsara.com/reference/getvehiclelocationsfeed
• Geotab MyGeotab SDKCommercialGeotab

  JSON-RPC Get/GetFeed on Device and DeviceStatusInfo (lat/lon, speed, heading) with incremental feed tokens; near-real-time. CalAmp Telematics Cloud offers equivalent REST feeds.

  In practice AVL often arrives CAD-integrated rather than direct from the telematics vendor.

  https://developers.geotab.com/myGeotab/introduction/

Public alerting

• FEMA IPAWS-OPENRestrictedFEMA

  CAP v1.2 XML exchange for WEA/EAS origination; requires a signed MOA and alerting-authority status. Archived alerts are public JSON via OpenFEMA (ipaws-archived-alerts-v1).

  https://www.fema.gov/emergency-managers/practitioners/integrated-public-alert-warning-system/technology-developers/ipaws-open
• Commercial aggregators (Xweather Fires, Ambee)CommercialVaisala; Ambee

  REST enrichment feeds: active fires with containment and some perimeters (Xweather /fires/{action}), detections plus risk forecasts (Ambee); useful as cross-checks, not systems of record.

  https://www.xweather.com/docs/weather-api/endpoints/fires

incident_id (IRWIN id canonical), name, type, discovered_at, poo_point, acres, containment_pct, status

Dedup on IRWIN id first, else name + distance + time window; CAD events attach as child dispatch notes until matched.

station_id, network, obs_time, temp_c, rh_pct, wind_ms, wind_dir_deg, gust_ms, fuel_moisture_10h

Timestamps aligned to top-of-interval UTC; dedup on station + time + variable.

location, model, issued_at, valid_at, met fields, is_spot, forecaster_text

Never mix issued_at generations in one series; spot forecasts carry incident linkage.

detected_at, sensor, point, frp_mw, brightness_k, pixel_size_m, confidence, day_night

Sensor-specific confidence mapped to 0-1; dedup on sensor + scan time + pixel; clustered for agent use with pixel size kept for weighting.

incident_id, polygon, perimeter_time, acres_gis, method, is_current

Append-only revisions; area recomputed in an equal-area CRS alongside source acres.

cell_id, fbfm40, canopy_cover_pct, slope_deg, aspect_deg, elevation_m, landfire_version

Static layers version-pinned per incident and resampled to one lattice so spread models see a single grid.

treatment_id, kind, status, polygon, completed_at, source_plan

Status gates model damping: only completed or active work changes predicted behavior.

structure_id, footprint, centroid, parcel_id, address, occupancy_class, defensible_space_score

Footprints conflated to parcels by spatial join; both sources kept in provenance.

unit_id, call_sign, ics_type, position, heading, status, position_time, position_source (mdt / vehicle_avl / handheld / ads_b), accuracy_m, assignment

GPS positions and CAD status merged on a unit crosswalk; when a unit reports from more than one device, the freshest fix wins, with accuracy as a tiebreak. Positions older than 10 min are flagged stale. The same merged picture is sent back to crew MDTs.

cap_identifier, event_type, area, sent_at, effective..expires, severity/certainty/urgency, channel, text

CAP is already the normal form; raw CAP XML kept in provenance; dedup on identifier + update chain.

zone_id, polygon, status (ready/set/go), status_time, population_est, structure_count, authority

Status transitions kept as event history and joined to AlertMessage when a WEA covers the zone.