Observing forest fires with the GOES-8, 3.9-μm imaging channel

Blackbody radiation at 3.9 mu m increases rapidly with temperature. This fact suggests a potential application by fire weather meteorologists of the 3.9- mu m imagery data provided by the new GOES-8 weather satellite. The ability of the 3.9- mu m channel to sense forest fires is briefly discussed and an example case study is presented. A simple radiation model is used to estimate the minimum detectable fire size for several types of wildfires.