Abstract
The use of the mid-infrared and thermal bands of sensors on board airborne platforms and satellites permits the detection of active fires on the Earth’s surface. This application has been available to the fire-fighting community for many years. However, limitations in the fire detection capabilities of the sensors and/or the lack of adequate re-visit frequency have prevented the use of these systems for operational forest fire-fighting. In addition to mobile systems, remote sensors positioned on fixed fire-watch towers have also been used for active fire detection. These instruments are often positioned in strategic look-out places to provide continuous monitoring of the surrounding areas. They locate fires through the detection of either hot spots (areas of increased temperature in comparison to the background) or smoke plumes produced by the fires. This article evaluates the use of existing remote sensing systems for active fire detection, with emphasis on the applicability of these systems for fire emergency management and fire-fighting. Long-range remote sensing devices on board satellites are considered, airborne systems are assessed, and short-range fire detection instruments on fixed ground platforms are reviewed. A short introduction to forthcoming satellite systems, which will be based on the combined use of several small satellites, is presented. The advantages and drawbacks of the different systems are evaluated from a fire management perspective.
Article PDF
Similar content being viewed by others
Avoid common mistakes on your manuscript.
References
O. Arino J.M. Melinotte (1995) ArticleTitleFire Index Atlas, Earth Obser Quart. 50 11–16
Arino, O., Melinotte J.M., Calabresi, G.: 1993, Fire, cloud, land, water: The ‘Ionia’AVHRR CD-Browser of ESRIN. EOQ 41, ESA, EST EC, Noordwijk, July 1993.
B.C. Arrue A. Ollero R. Martinez-deDios J. (2000) ArticleTitleAn intelligent system for false alarm reduction in infrared detection of forest fires IEEE Intell. Syst. 15 IssueID3 64–73 Occurrence Handle10.1109/5254.846287
S.H. Boles D.L. Verbyla (1999) ArticleTitleEffect of scan angle on AVHRR fire detection accuracy in interior Alaska Int. J. Remote Sens. 20 3437–3443 Occurrence Handle10.1080/014311699211471
K. Brieb W. Barwald T. Gerlich H. Jahn F. Lura H. Studemund (2000) ArticleTitleThe DLR small satellite mission BIRD Acta Astronaut. 46 111–120 Occurrence Handle10.1016/S0094-5765(99)00201-5
K. Brieb H. Jahn A. Ginati K. Sommer (1996) ArticleTitleA small satellite solution for the fire detection and monitoring from space Acta Astronaut. 39 447–457 Occurrence Handle10.1016/S0094-5765(96)00114-2
D.R. Cahoon B.J. Stocks M.E. Alexander B.A. Baum J.G. Goldammer (2000) Wildland fire detection from space: Theory and application L.J. Innes M. Beniston M.M. Verstraete (Eds) Biomass Burning and its Inter-Relationships with the Climate System. Kluwer Academic Publishers The Netherlands
E. Chuvieco P. Martin (1994) ArticleTitleA simple method for fire growth mapping using AVHRR channel 3 data Int. J. Remote Sens. 15 3141–3146
De Vries J.S., Kemp R.A.W., (1994). Results with a Multi-sprectral autonomous wildfire detection system. Proceedings of the 2nd International Conference on Forest Fire Research. Vol II. CP.27, pp. 779–791.
E. Dwyer S. Pinnock J.-M. Gregoire J.M. Pereira (2000) ArticleTitleGlobal and temporal distribution of vegetation fire as determined from satellite imagery Int. J. Remote Sens. 21 1289–1302 Occurrence Handle10.1080/014311600210182
C.D. Elvidge V.R. Hobson K.E. Baugh J.B. Dietz Y.E. Shimabujuro T. Krug E.M. Novo M. L. F.R. Echevarria (2001) ArticleTitleDMSP-OLS estimation of tropical forest area impated by surface fires in Roraima, Brazil: 1995 versus 1998 Int. J. Remote Sens. 22 2661–2673 Occurrence Handle10.1080/01431160010025961
ESA, 2000, REMSAT, Space Agency, ESA-ESRIN, Via Galileo s/n, Frascati, Italy.
European Commission: 1996, Forest Fires in Southern Europe, Office for Official Publications of the European Communities, L-2985, Luxemburg.
S.P. Flasse P. Ceccato (1996) ArticleTitleA contextual algorithm for AVHRR fire detection Int. J. Remote Sens. 17 IssueID2 419–424
L Giglio J.D. Kendall C.O. Justice (1999) ArticleTitleEvaluation of global fire detection algorithms using simulated AVHRR infrared data Int. J. Remote Sens. 20 1947–1985 Occurrence Handle10.1080/014311699212290
Gómez-Rodríguez, F., Pascual-Peña, S., Arrue B.C., Ollero, A.: 2002, Smoke Detection Using Image Processing. IV International Congress on Forest Fire Research - IV ICFFR 2002 & Wildland Fire Safety. ISBN: 90-77017-72-0.
INSA.: 2000, FUEGO Instrument Design, Prototype, Construction and Validation, FUEGO 2 Final Report, INSA publications, Madrid, Spain.
C.O. Justice L. Giglio S. Korontzi J. Owens J.T. Morissette D. Roy J. Descloitres S. Alleaume F. Petitcolin Y. Kaufman (2002) ArticleTitleThe MODIS fire products Remote Sens. Environ. 83 244–262 Occurrence Handle10.1016/S0034-4257(02)00076-7
Kaiser, T. and Kempka, T.: 2001, Is microwave radiation useful for fire detection?, In: Beall, K., Grosshandler, W., Luck, H. (eds.), Proceedings of the International Conference on Automatic Fire Detection, held in Maryland on March 25–28.
Y.J. Kaufman C.J. Tucker I. Fung (1990) ArticleTitleRemote sensing of biomass burning in the tropics J. Geophys. Res. 95 9927–9939
Y.J. Kaufman C.O. Justice L.P. Flynn J.D. Kendall E.M. Prins L. Giglio D.E. Ward W.P. Menzel A.W. Setzer (1998) ArticleTitlePotential globe fire monitoring from EOS-MODIS J.Geophys.Res. 103 IssueIDD24 32215–32238 Occurrence Handle10.1029/98JD01644 Occurrence Handle1:CAS:528:DyaK1MXovVWitA%3D%3D
Kelha, V., Rauste, T., Hame, T., Septon, T., Buongiorno, A., Frauenberger, O., Soini, K., Venäläinen, A., San Miguel-Ayanz, J., Vainio, T.: 2001, Promotion of space tecnologies for supporting the management of natural disasters: Earth observation technologies for decision support ‘Fire Risk Management in Finland, Final report to the European Space Agency, VTT Automation, Espoo, Finland.
P.J. Kennedy A.S. Belward J.M. Gregoire (1994) ArticleTitleAn improved approach to fire monitoring in West Africa using AVHRR data Int. J. Remote Sens. 15 2235–2255
S. Langaas (1993) ArticleTitleA parametrised bispectral model for savanna fire detection using AVHRR night images Int. J. Remote Sens. 14 2245–2262
Z. Li S. Nadon J. Cihlar (2000) ArticleTitleSatellite-based detection of Canadian boreal forest fire: Development and application of the algorithm Int. J. Remote Sens. 21 3057–3069 Occurrence Handle10.1080/01431160050144956
Z. Li A. Khananian R. Fraser J. Cihlar (2001) ArticleTitleAutomatic Detection of Fire Smoke Using Artificial Neural Networks and Threshold Approaches Applied to AVHRR Imagery IEEE T. Geosci. Remote Sens. 39 1859–1870 Occurrence Handle10.1109/36.951076
B.C. Ollero A. Arrue J.R. Martinez J.J. . Murillo (1999) ArticleTitleTechniques for reducing false alarms in infrared forest-fire automatic detection systems Control Eng. Pract. 7 123–131 Occurrence Handle10.1016/S0967-0661(98)00141-5
E.M. Prins W.P. Menzel (1992) ArticleTitleGeostationary Satellite detection of biomass Burning in South America Int. J. Remote Sens. 13 2783–2799
E.M. Prins W.P. Menzel (1994) ArticleTitleTrends in South American biomass burning detected with the GOES visible infrared spin scan radiometer atmospheric sounder from 1983 to 1991 J.Geophys.Res. 99 719–16735 Occurrence Handle10.1029/94JD01208
E.M. Prins W.P. Menzel (1996) Investigation of biomass burning and aerosol loading and transport utilizing geostationary satellite data J.S. Levine (Eds) Biomass Burning and Global Change. The MIT Press Cambridge MA 65–72
Ravail, N. and San-Miguel-Ayanz: 2002, Evaluation of the performance of the world fire web contextual fire detection algorithm over Spain for the years 1997–98, EUR Report, Office for Official Publications of the European Communities, L-2985, Luxemburg.
J.M. Robinson (1991) ArticleTitleFire from space: Global evaluation using infrared remote sensing Int. J. Remote Sens. 12 3–24
Sadovnik L.S., Manasson V.A., Mino, M., Kiseliov, V.: 1999, Remote fire detection using MMW radiometric sensor, In: M. N. Armenise, P.A. Pecorella, L. S. Sadovnik, (eds.), Optical Devices & Methods for Microwave/Millimeter-wave & Frontier Applications, SPIE Society of Photo-Optical Instrumentation Engineering, May, 1999, pp. 73–80.
D. Stroppiana S. Pinnock J.-M. Gregoire (2000) ArticleTitleThe global fire product: Daily fire occurrence from April 1992 to December 1993 derived from NOAA AVHRR data Int. J. Remote Sens. 21 1279–1288
Utkin A.B., Fernandes, A., Simoes, F., Vilar, R., Lavrov, A.: 2002, Forest-fire Detection by Means of Lidar. Forest Fire Research & Wildland Fire Safety.
Wybo J.L., Eftichidis, G., Koutsouris, D., Manganas, T., Viegas D.X., Apostolopoulos, T., Pelosio, E., Bovio, G., Ollero, A. Schmidt, D., Criado, A.: 1998, DEDICS: A general supporting management of forest Fire Proceedings of the 3rd International Conference on Forest Fire Research. Luso, Portugal, November 1998. pp. 2003–2012.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
San-Miguel-Ayanz, J., Ravail, N. Active Fire Detection for Fire Emergency Management: Potential and Limitations for the Operational Use of Remote Sensing. Nat Hazards 35, 361–376 (2005). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11069-004-1797-2
Accepted:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11069-004-1797-2