The VNP14IMG_NRT is a Near Real Time (NRT) S-NPP/VIIRS 375 m active fire detection data product (Schroeder 2014). The product is built on the EOS/MODIS fire product heritage [Kaufman et al., 1998; Giglio et al., 2003], using a multi-spectral contextual algorithm to identify sub-pixel fire activity and other thermal anomalies in the Level 1 (swath) input data. The algorithm uses all five 375 m VIIRS channels to detect fires and separate land, water, and cloud pixels in the image. Additional 750 m channels complement the available VIIRS multispectral data. Those channels are used as input to the baseline active fire detection product, which provides continuity to the EOS/MODIS 1 km Fire and Thermal Anomalies product.

The VIIRS 375 m fire detection data is a Level 2 product based on the input Science Data Record (SDR) Level 1 swath format. The NRT product is currently available through NASA's Land, Atmosphere Near real-time Capability for EOS (LANCE). The data are formatted as NetCDF4 files. Complementary ASCII files containing the short list of fire pixels detected are also available through LANCE FIRMS processing systems.

For more information read VIIRS 375 m Active Fire Algorithm User Guide at https://earthdata.nasa.gov/files/VIIRS_375m_Users_guide_Dec15_v2.pdf

and

Schroeder, W., Oliva, P., Giglio, L., & Csiszar, I. A. (2014). The New VIIRS 375m active fire detection data product: algorithm description and initial assessment. Remote Sensing of Environment, 143, 85-96. doi:10.1016/j.rse.2013.12.008 PDF from UMD

or

visit University of Maryland VIIRS Active Fire Web page at http://viirsfire.geog.umd.edu/