"Global Monitoring of Fires from Space"
Satellite remote sensing of fires
provides a unique view of our planet and quantitative information that
can contribute to the study of global change and inform resource
management and policy. A number of operational and experimental
satellite sensing systems have the capability to provide regional and
global imaging of fire. Each of these systems has different sensing
characteristics, providing different types of fire information for
estimation of fire danger, detection of active fires, estimation of
burned area, quantifying emissions products, estimating fire damage and
monitoring post-fire ecosystem recovery. The methods for extracting
such information from a diverse set of instruments fall largely in the
research domain. The pressing demand for reliable and up-to-date
information on fire occurrence, extent and emissions, warrants the
transition of these research techniques and experimental sensors into
the operational domain. Providing consistent fire information of known
accuracy at regional to global scales in a timely and easily useable
fashion, is a challenge facing the research community. An international
program called Global Observations of Land Dynamics (GOLD) is
coordinating a concerted international effort to meet this challenge.