Continuous monitoring of forest fires in the Mediterranean area using MSG

Fires represent one of the main factors of degrada- tion and destruction of the Mediterranean forest heritage. Ac- cording to fire-fighting agencies, a satellite-based fire-detection system can be considered operationally useful for Mediterranean countries when fires with a minimum extent of 1500 m 2 can be detected with a temporal resolution of 30 min. In fact, such a system should be able to detect fires at their first stage when it is possible to extinguish them more easily. The Centro di Ricerca Progetto San Marco has been analyzing for several years the possi- bility of using images acquired by the Spinning Enhanced Visible and Infrared Imager sensor onboard the geostationary satellite Meteosat Second Generation for this purpose. A new processing approach exploiting the increase in both spatial and temporal resolution (15 min) with respect to previous meteosat systems is described in this paper. The idea is based on the use of a change- detection technique to maximize the detection capabilities of the system in spite of its limited spatial resolution. This technique consists of comparing two or more images acquired at 15-min intervals, for which any temperature change can be attributed to fast dynamic phenomena, such as fires, when natural changes are modeled and removed. An assessment of the performances of this algorithm is carried out comparing its results with the reportmadeavailablebyItalianfire-fightingagenciesandwithfire products based on higher resolution sensors such as the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer.

[1]  J. Dozier.  A method for satellite identification of surface temperature fields of subpixel resolution , 1981 .

[2]  C. DaCamara,et al.  Land surface temperature and emissivity estimation based on the two-temperature method: sensitivity analysis using simulated MSG/SEVIRI data , 2004 .

[3]  C. Justice,et al.  Evaluation of global fire detection algorithms using simulated AVHRR infrared data , 1999 .

[4]  Z. Wan,et al.  Evaluation of Six Methods for Extracting Relative Emissivity Spectra from Thermal Infrared Images , 1999 .

[5]  Shunlin Liang,et al.  An optimization algorithm for separating land surface temperature and emissivity from multispectral thermal infrared imagery , 2001, IEEE Trans. Geosci. Remote. Sens..

[6]  Gerald C. Holst,et al.  Electro-Optical Imaging System Performance , 1995 .

[7]  C. Justice,et al.  Satellite remote sensing of fires during the SAFARI campaign using NOAA Advanced Very High Resolution Radiometer data , 1996 .

[8]  C. Justice,et al.  Validation of the MODIS active fire product over Southern Africa with ASTER data , 2005 .

[9]  P. Ceccato,et al.  Fire detection and fire growth monitoring using satellite data , 1999 .

[10]  Carlo Ulivieri,et al.  A split window algorithm for estimating land surface temperature from satellites , 1994 .

[11]  H. Fischer,et al.  Land surface temperature and emissivity estimation from passive sensor data: Theory and practice-current trends , 2002 .

[12]  Thomas F. Lee,et al.  Improved Detection of Hotspots using the AVHRR 3.7-um Channel , 1990 .

[13]  Pietro Ceccato,et al.  A contextual algorithm for AVHRR fire detection , 1996 .

[14]  Yoram J. Kaufman,et al.  Remote Sensing of Biomass Burning in the Tropics , 1990 .

[15]  R. Lasaponara,et al.  Evaluation of a new satellite-based method for forest fire detection , 2001 .

[16]  Yoram J. Kaufman,et al.  A Review of AVHRR-based Active Fire Detection Algorithms: Principles, Limitations, and Recommendations , 2000 .

[17]  E. Prins,et al.  Trends in South American biomass burning detected with the GOES visible infrared spin scan radiometer atmospheric sounder from 1983 to 1991 , 1994 .

[18]  C. J. Tucker,et al.  Remote sensing of fires with the TRMM VIRS , 2000 .

[19]  G. G. Stokes.  "J." , 1890, The New Yale Book of Quotations.

[20]  E. Prins,et al.  Geostationary satellite detection of bio mass burning in South America , 1992 .

[21]  P ? ? ? ? ? ? ? % ? ? ? ? , 1991 .

[22]  Jennifer Robinson,et al.  Fire from space : global fire evaluation using infrared remote sensing , 1991 .

[23]  Z. Wan.  MODIS Land-Surface Temperature Algorithm Theoretical Basis Document (LST ATBD) , 1999 .

[24]  François Petitcolin,et al.  Land surface reflectance, emissivity and temperature from MODIS middle and thermal infrared data , 2002 .

[25]  Ying Li,et al.  A hybrid contextual approach to wildland fire detection using multispectral imagery , 2005, IEEE Transactions on Geoscience and Remote Sensing.

[26]  C. O. Justicea,et al.  The MODIS fire products , 2002 .

[27]  Yoram J. Kaufman,et al.  Remote sensing of biomass burning in the tropics , 1990 .