scholarly journals MODIS Sensor Capability to Burned Area Mapping—Assessment of Performance and Improvements Provided by the Latest Standard Products in Boreal Regions

Sensors ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 20 (18) ◽  
pp. 5423
Author(s):  
José A. Moreno-Ruiz ◽  
José R. García-Lázaro ◽  
Manuel Arbelo ◽  
Manuel Cantón-Garbín

This paper presents an accuracy assessment of the main global scale Burned Area (BA) products, derived from daily images of the Moderate-Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) Fire_CCI 5.1 and MCD64A1 C6, as well as the previous versions of both products (Fire_CCI 4.1 and MCD45A1 C5). The exercise was conducted on the boreal region of Alaska during the period 2000–2017. All the BA polygons registered by the Alaska Fire Service were used as reference data. Both new versions doubled the annual BA estimate compared to the previous versions (66% for Fire_CCI 5.1 versus 35% for v4.1, and 63% for MCD64A1 C6 versus 28% for C5), reducing the omission error (OE) by almost one half (39% versus 67% for Fire_CCI and 48% versus 74% for MCD) and slightly increasing the commission error (CE) (7.5% versus 7% for Fire_CCI and 18% versus 7% for MCD). The Fire_CCI 5.1 product (CE = 7.5%, OE = 39%) presented the best results in terms of positional accuracy with respect to MCD64A1 C6 (CE = 18%, OE = 48%). These results suggest that Fire_CCI 5.1 could be suitable for those users who employ BA standard products in geoinformatics analysis techniques for wildfire management, especially in Boreal regions. The Pareto boundary analysis, performed on an annual basis, showed that there is still a potential theoretical capacity to improve the MODIS sensor-based BA algorithms.

2014 ◽  
Vol 14 (19) ◽  
pp. 26003-26039 ◽  
Author(s):  
T. Thonat ◽  
C. Crevoisier ◽  
N. A. Scott ◽  
A. Chédin ◽  
R. Armante ◽  
...  

Abstract. Five years (July 2007–June 2012) of CO tropospheric columns derived from the IASI hyperspectral infrared sounder onboard Metop-A are used to study the impact of fires on the concentrations of CO in the mid-troposphere. Following Chédin et al. (2005, 2008), who showed the existence of a daily tropospheric excess of CO2 quantitatively related to fire emissions, we show that tropospheric CO also displays a diurnal signal with a seasonality that is in very good agreement with the seasonal evolution of fires given by GFED3.1 (Global Fire Emission Database) emissions and MODIS (Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer) burned area. Unlike daytime or nighttime CO fields, which mix local emissions with nearby emissions transported to the region of study, the day-night difference of CO allows to highlight the CO signal due to local fire emissions. A linear relationship is found in the whole tropical region between CO fire emissions from the GFED3.1 inventory and the diurnal difference of IASI CO (R2 ~ 0.6). Based on the specificity of the two main phases of the combustion (flaming vs. smoldering) and on the vertical sensitivity of the sounder to CO, the following mechanism is proposed to explain such a CO diurnal signal: at night, after the passing of IASI at 9.30 p.m. LT, a large amount of CO emissions from the smoldering phase is trapped in the boundary layer before being uplifted the next morning by natural and pyro-convection up to the free troposphere, where it is seen by IASI at 9.30 a.m. LT. The results presented here highlight the need for developing complementary approaches to bottom-up emissions inventories and for taking into account the specificity of both the flaming and smoldering phases of fire emissions in order to fully take advantage of CO observations.


2014 ◽  
Vol 44 (12) ◽  
pp. 1545-1554 ◽  
Author(s):  
L. Guindon ◽  
P.Y. Bernier ◽  
A. Beaudoin ◽  
D. Pouliot ◽  
P. Villemaire ◽  
...  

Disturbances such as fire and harvesting shape forest dynamics and must be accounted for when modelling forest properties. However, acquiring timely disturbance information for all of Canada’s large forest area has always been challenging. Therefore, we developed an approach to detect annual forest change resulting from fire, harvesting, or flooding using Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) imagery at 250 m spatial resolution across Canada and to estimate the within-pixel fractional change (FC). When this approach was applied to the period from 2000 to 2011, the accuracy of detection of burnt, harvested, or flooded areas against our validation dataset was 82%, 80%, and 85%, respectively. With FC, 77% of the area burnt and 82% of the area harvested within the validation dataset were correctly identified. The methodology was optimized to reduce the commission error but tended to omit smaller disturbances as a result. For example, the omitted area for harvest blocks greater than 80 ha was less than 14% but increased to between 38% and 50% for harvest blocks of 20 to 30 ha. Detection of burnt and harvested areas in some regions was hindered by persistent haze or cloud cover or by insect outbreaks. All resulting data layers are available as supplementary material.


2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sarah A. Strode ◽  
Junhua Liu ◽  
Leslie Lait ◽  
Róisín Commane ◽  
Bruce Daube ◽  
...  

Abstract. GEOS-5 forecasts and analyses show considerable skill in predicting and simulating the CO distribution and the timing of CO enhancements observed during the ATom-1 aircraft mission. Using tagged tracers for CO, we find a dominant contribution from non-biomass burning sources along the ATom transects except over the tropical Atlantic, where African biomass burning makes a large contribution to the CO concentration. One of the goals of ATom is to provide a chemical climatology over the oceans, so it is important to consider whether August 2016 was representative of typical summer conditions. Using satellite observations of 700 hPa and column CO from the Measurement of Pollution in the Troposphere (MOPITT) instrument, 215 hPa CO from the Microwave Limb Sounder (MLS), and aerosol optical thickness from the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS), we find that CO concentrations and aerosol optical thickness in August 2016 were within the observed range of the satellite observations, but below the decadal median for many of the regions sampled. This suggests that the ATom-1 measurements may represent relatively clean but not exceptional conditions for lower tropospheric CO.


2019 ◽  
Vol 16 (16) ◽  
pp. 3147-3164 ◽  
Author(s):  
James Brennan ◽  
Jose L. Gómez-Dans ◽  
Mathias Disney ◽  
Philip Lewis

Abstract. Quantitative information on the error properties of global satellite-derived burned area (BA) products is essential for evaluating the quality of these products, e.g. against modelled BA estimates. We estimate theoretical uncertainties for three widely used global satellite-derived BA products using a multiplicative triple collocation error model. The approach provides spatially unique uncertainties at 1∘ for the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) Collection 6 burned area product (MCD64), the MODIS Collection 5.1 (MCD45) product, and the European Space Agency (ESA) Climate Change Initiative Fire product version 5.0 (FireCCI50) for 2001–2013. The uncertainties on mean global burned area for three products are 3.76±0.15×106 km2 for MCD64, 3.70±0.17×106 km2 for FireCCI50, and 3.31±0.18×106 km2 for MCD45. These correspond to relative uncertainties of 4 %–5.5 % and also indicate previous uncertainty estimates to be underestimated. Relative uncertainties are 8 %–10 % in Africa and Australia, for example, and larger in regions with less annual burned area. The method provides uncertainties that are likely to be more consistent with modelling and data analysis studies due to their spatially explicit properties. These properties are also intended to allow spatially explicit validation of current burned area products.


2018 ◽  
Vol 44 ◽  
pp. 85
Author(s):  
Laís Fernandes De Souza Neves ◽  
Beatriz Schwantes Marimon ◽  
Liana Oighenstein Anderson ◽  
Sandra Mara Alves da Silva Neves

A recorrência de incêndios é presente no Cerrado como parte de sua evolução. No entanto, houve um aumento na frequência de incêndios nas últimas décadas devido ao seu uso para desmatamentos, na agricultura e para manutenção de pastagens. Alterações nos estoques de carbono acima do solo na vegetação e alteração na composição de espécies devido as queimadas foram observadas em muitos locais, incluindo o Parque Estadual do Araguaia (PEA), localizado no Cerrado da região sul da Amazônia, mas os padrões dos incêndios nesta área ainda não foram quantificados. Portanto, o objetivo deste estudo é caracterizar a dinâmica espaço-temporal dos incêndios ocorridos entre 2000 e 2013 neste Parque. Os dados de área queimada do produto Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) Burned Area - MOD45 e os de precipitação, do satélite Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission (TRMM) foram utilizados. Identificamos os picos de ocorrência de incêndios florestais, as áreas mais afetadas e os anos mais críticos, relacionando a área queimada com a precipitação pluviométrica mensal. Durante os 14 anos de estudo 633.625 hectares foram atingidos pelo fogo, área que corresponde a quase três vezes o tamanho do PEA. As maiores áreas atingidas por incêndios florestais foram registradas em 2007, 2010 e 2012. Observamos ainda um crescimento exponencial de incêndios quando a precipitação mensal foi inferior a 150 mm, com picos de incêndios nos meses de agosto e setembro. O PEA é uma unidade de proteção integral onde deveriam ser adotadas estratégias de gestão do fogo, principalmente nas florestas sazonalmente inundáveis.


2013 ◽  
Vol 26 (9) ◽  
pp. 2719-2740 ◽  
Author(s):  
Seiji Kato ◽  
Norman G. Loeb ◽  
Fred G. Rose ◽  
David R. Doelling ◽  
David A. Rutan ◽  
...  

Abstract The estimate of surface irradiance on a global scale is possible through radiative transfer calculations using satellite-retrieved surface, cloud, and aerosol properties as input. Computed top-of-atmosphere (TOA) irradiances, however, do not necessarily agree with observation-based values, for example, from the Clouds and the Earth’s Radiant Energy System (CERES). This paper presents a method to determine surface irradiances using observational constraints of TOA irradiance from CERES. A Lagrange multiplier procedure is used to objectively adjust inputs based on their uncertainties such that the computed TOA irradiance is consistent with CERES-derived irradiance to within the uncertainty. These input adjustments are then used to determine surface irradiance adjustments. Observations by the Atmospheric Infrared Sounder (AIRS), Cloud–Aerosol Lidar and Infrared Pathfinder Satellite Observations (CALIPSO), CloudSat, and Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) that are a part of the NASA A-Train constellation provide the uncertainty estimates. A comparison with surface observations from a number of sites shows that the bias [root-mean-square (RMS) difference] between computed and observed monthly mean irradiances calculated with 10 years of data is 4.7 (13.3) W m−2 for downward shortwave and −2.5 (7.1) W m−2 for downward longwave irradiances over ocean and −1.7 (7.8) W m−2 for downward shortwave and −1.0 (7.6) W m−2 for downward longwave irradiances over land. The bias and RMS error for the downward longwave and shortwave irradiances over ocean are decreased from those without constraint. Similarly, the bias and RMS error for downward longwave over land improves, although the constraint does not improve downward shortwave over land. This study demonstrates how synergetic use of multiple instruments (CERES, MODIS, CALIPSO, CloudSat, AIRS, and geostationary satellites) improves the accuracy of surface irradiance computations.


2020 ◽  
Vol 12 (15) ◽  
pp. 2473
Author(s):  
Huiling Chen ◽  
Gaofeng Zhu ◽  
Kun Zhang ◽  
Jian Bi ◽  
Xiaopeng Jia ◽  
...  

We evaluated the performance of three global evapotranspiration (ET) models at local, regional, and global scales using the multiple sets of leaf area index (LAI) and meteorological data from 1982 to 2017 and investigated the uncertainty in ET simulations from the model structure and forcing data. The three ET models were the Simple Terrestrial Hydrosphere model (SiTH) developed by our team, the Priestley–Taylor Jet Propulsion Laboratory model (PT-JPL), and the MODerate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) ET algorithm (MOD16). Comparing the observed with simulated monthly ET by the three models over 43 Fluxnet sites, we found that SiTH overestimated ET for forests with mean slope from 1.25 to 1.67, but it performed better than the other two models over short vegetation. MOD16 and PT-JPL models simulated well for forests but poorly in dryland biomes (slope = 0.25~0.55; R2 = 0.02~0.46). At the catchment scale, all models performed well, except for some tropical and high latitudinal catchments, with NSE values lower than 0 and RMSE and MAE values far beyond their mean values. At the global scale, SiTH highly overestimated ET in tropics, while PT-JPL slightly underestimated ET between 30°N and 60°N and MOD16 underestimated ET between 15°S and 30°S. Generally, the PT-JPL provided the better performance than SiTH and MOD16 models. This study also revealed that the estimated ET by SiTH and especially PT-JPL model were influenced by the uncertainty in meteorological data, and the estimated ET was performed better using MERRA-2 datasets for PT-JPL and using ERA5 datasets for SiTH. While the estimated ET by MOD16 were relatively sensitive to LAI data. In addition, our results suggested that the GLOBMAP and GIMMS datasets were more suitable for long-term ET simulations than the GLASS dataset.


Author(s):  
Zhenzhen Wang ◽  
Jianjun Zhao ◽  
Jiawen Xu ◽  
Mingrui Jia ◽  
Han Li ◽  
...  

Northeast China is China’s primary grain production base. A large amount of crop straw is incinerated every spring and autumn, which greatly impacts air quality. To study the degree of influence of straw burning on urban pollutant concentrations, this study used The Moderate-Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer/Terra Thermal Anomalies & Fire Daily L3 Global 1 km V006 (MOD14A1) and The Moderate-Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer/Aqua Thermal Anomalies and Fire Daily L3 Global 1 km V006 (MYD14A1) data from 2015 to 2017 to extract fire spot data on arable land burning and to study the spatial distribution characteristics of straw burning on urban pollutant concentrations, temporal variation characteristics and impact thresholds. The results show that straw burning in Northeast China is concentrated in spring and autumn; the seasonal spatial distributions of PM2.5, PM10 andAir Quality Index (AQI) in 41 cities or regions in Northeast China correspond to the seasonal variation of fire spots; and pollutants appear in the peak periods of fire spots. In areas where the concentration coefficient of rice or corn is greater than 1, the number of fire spots has a strong correlation with the urban pollution index. The correlation coefficient R between the number of burned fire spots and the pollutant concentration has a certain relationship with the urban distribution. Cities are aggregated in geospatial space with different R values.


2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (15) ◽  
pp. 2895
Author(s):  
Maria Gavrouzou ◽  
Nikolaos Hatzianastassiou ◽  
Antonis Gkikas ◽  
Christos J. Lolis ◽  
Nikolaos Mihalopoulos

A satellite algorithm able to identify Dust Aerosols (DA) is applied for a climatological investigation of Dust Aerosol Episodes (DAEs) over the greater Mediterranean Basin (MB), one of the most climatologically sensitive regions of the globe. The algorithm first distinguishes DA among other aerosol types (such as Sea Salt and Biomass Burning) by applying threshold values on key aerosol optical properties describing their loading, size and absorptivity, namely Aerosol Optical Depth (AOD), Aerosol Index (AI) and Ångström Exponent (α). The algorithm operates on a daily and 1° × 1° geographical cell basis over the 15-year period 2005–2019. Daily gridded spectral AOD data are taken from Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) Aqua Collection 6.1, and are used to calculate the α data, which are then introduced into the algorithm, while AI data are obtained by the Ozone Monitoring Instrument (OMI) -Aura- Near-UV aerosol product OMAERUV dataset. The algorithm determines the occurrence of Dust Aerosol Episode Days (DAEDs), whenever high loads of DA (higher than their climatological mean value plus two/four standard deviations for strong/extreme DAEDs) exist over extended areas (more than 30 pixels or 300,000 km2). The identified DAEDs are finally grouped into Dust Aerosol Episode Cases (DAECs), consisting of at least one DAED. According to the algorithm results, 166 (116 strong and 50 extreme) DAEDs occurred over the MB during the study period. DAEDs are observed mostly in spring (47%) and summer (38%), with strong DAEDs occurring primarily in spring and summer and extreme ones in spring. Decreasing, but not statistically significant, trends of the frequency, spatial extent and intensity of DAECs are revealed. Moreover, a total number of 98 DAECs was found, primarily in spring (46 DAECs) and secondarily in summer (36 DAECs). The seasonal distribution of the frequency of DAECs varies geographically, being highest in early spring over the eastern Mediterranean, in late spring over the central Mediterranean and in summer over the western MB.


2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (5) ◽  
pp. 920
Author(s):  
Zhongting Wang ◽  
Ruru Deng ◽  
Pengfei Ma ◽  
Yuhuan Zhang ◽  
Yeheng Liang ◽  
...  

Aerosol distribution with fine spatial resolution is crucial for atmospheric environmental management. This paper proposes an improved algorithm of aerosol retrieval from 250-m Medium Resolution Spectral Image (MERSI) data of Chinese FY-3 satellites. A mixing model of soil and vegetation was used to calculate the parameters of the algorithm from moderate-resolution imaging spectroradiometer (MODIS) reflectance products in 500-m resolution. The mixing model was used to determine surface reflectance in blue band, and the 250-m aerosol optical depth (AOD) was retrieved through removing surface contributions from MERSI data over Guangzhou. The algorithm was used to monitor two pollution episodes in Guangzhou in 2015, and the results displayed an AOD spatial distribution with 250-m resolution. Compared with the yearly average of MODIS aerosol products in 2015, the 250-m resolution AOD derived from the MERSI data exhibited great potential for identifying air pollution sources. Daily AODs derived from MERSI data were compared with ground results from CE318 measurements. The results revealed a correlation coefficient between the AODs from MERSI and those from the ground measurements of approximately 0.85, and approximately 68% results were within expected error range of ±(0.05 + 15%τ).


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