A new algorithm for the detection of plumes caused by industrial accidents , on the basis of NOAA / AVHRR imagery

The Advanced Very High Resolution (AVHRR) on board the NOAA satellites may be used for detecting plumes caused by industrial accidents through the combined use of the visible (0.58-0.68 μm), near infrared (0.721.10 μm) and thermal infrared (11.5 12.5 μm) channels of the AVHRR. In this study a model algorithm is developed to identify pixels which correspond to plumes caused by industrial accidents. The novelty of the algorithm is that it combines the visible, the near infrared and the thermal infrared AVHRR channels in order to produce a two-dimensional feature space image in which the plumes can be detected and monitored. The algorithm was evaluated for four industrial accidents: in Enschede, the Netherlands on May 13, 2000; in Genoa, Italy on April 13, 1991; in Lyon, France on June 2, 1987 and in Kalohori, Greece on February 24, 1986. The effectiveness and reliability of the algorithm was found to be satisfactory in all case studies. * Corresponding author (tel. +30 810 391762, fax. +30 810 391761) Short Title: Remote sensing of plumes caused by industrial accidents

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