MODIS Near Real Time (NRT) Thermal Anomalies/Fire products are primarily derived from MODIS 4- and 11-micrometer radiances. The fire detection strategy is based on absolute detection of a fire (a fire of strength sufficient to detect), and on detection relative to its background (to account for variability of the surface temperature and reflection by sunlight). Numerous tests are employed to reject typical false alarm sources like sun glint or an unmasked coastline. MYD14CRS provides level-2 swath data daily at a 5-kilometer resolution. The Science Data Sets in this product include fire-mask, algorithm quality, radiative power, and numerous layers describing fire pixel attributes. The Aqua MODIS instrument acquires data twice daily (10:30 AM and PM), as does the Aqua MODIS (2:30 PM and AM). These four daily MODIS fire observations serve to advance global monitoring of the fire process and its effects on ecosystems, the atmosphere, and climate. Data Set Characteristics: File Size: ~ 990 KB Resolution: 5 kilometer Projection: None (swath data) Data Type: Fire Mask 8-bit unsigned Data Format: HDF-EOS Science Data Sets (SDS HDF Layers): 23 Version-5 MODIS/Aqua Coarse Thermal Anomalies/Fire products are validated, meaning that product uncertainties are well defined over a range of representative conditions. Although there may be later improved versions, these data are ready for use in scientific publications.