Forest fire monitoring using NOAA satellite AVHRR

The feasibility of using the advanced very high resolution radiometer (AVHRR) carried by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) series of satellites to monitor forest fires was tested during a severe fire outbreak in north central Alberta between June 12 and June 21, 1982. A multispectral technique used AVHRR channels 3 and 4 to identify fires and estimate fire size. This multispectral approach enabled identification of subpixel-sized fires as small as 1 ha. During the study, fires were obscured from satellite view by the presence of cloud and smoke 59% of the time. In the remaining time, 80% of the fires listed by the Alberta Forest Service were identified by satellite. Satellite observations of forest fires are not sufficiently accurate to replace existing monitoring methods, but they are of value in providing a rapid, inexpensive supplement, especially in remote forested areas.