Fire Occurrence


Fire Observed During Field Experiments

In September 1994, the MODIS Fire Science Team participated in the Smoke, Cloud and Radiation - California (SCAR-C) field experiment in the northwestern U.S. This test was part of the development of remote sensing techniques for monitoring and characterizing fires from biomass burning.

The experiment included detailed observations of wildfires and fires that were planned and conducted by the U.S. Forest Service; the latter are called prescribed fires. The Quinault prescribed fire on the coast of Washington state was studied in great detail during the SCAR-C experiment. The principal remote sensing measurements were made with the MODIS Airborne Simulator (MAS) onboard the NASA ER-2 high altitude research aircraft. The ER-2 flew eight times over the Quinault fire, which is pictured at the left. During each flyover an MAS image was generated, such as the one above, giving the size and apparent temperature of the fire and smoke plume. (Reds indicate highest temperatures.) These data have been used to establish a relationship between the rate of emission of thermal radiation from the fire and the rate of emission of smoke.

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Fire Observed With Satellite Data

The Yellowstone Fire began in July 1988 in the western US and eventually spread to engulf 5,000 square kilometers in and around Yellowstone National Park. A Landsat Thematic Mapper (TM) image was collected on September 8, 1988 at 10:30 AM and has been used to describe this fire and test new satellite observation techniques designed for use with measurements from the MODIS instrument onboard the Earth Observing System series of satellites.

The two images shown above are 3-channel false color composites constructed from the 7 spectral channels of the TM. The left figure is a composite of the 11, 2.2, and 1.65 micrometer channels shown by the red, green, and blue colors, respectively. This image shows the locations of the fires and the burned areas. Burn scars are warmer than the surrounding area and are therefore shown by pink-red colors.

The yellow-white spots around the burn scars are the active fires. The large burn scar in the lower right part of the image is approximately 2 kilometers wide and 13 kilometers long. The active fire cells are relatively small (60 to 120 meters) with the largest one 300 meters across. The right figure is a composite of the 11, 0.66, and 0.48 micrometer channels shown by the red, green, and blue colors, respectively. This image shows less detail for the burn scars and fires, but clearly shows the smoke plumes.

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