Methodologies for estimating 

burned using satellite-based 

data: Near-Real-Time

examples from Oregon and A

Amber Soja, Jassim Al-Saadi, Louis Giglio, Dav

Tom Moore, Joe Kordzi, David J. Willia

Chieko Kittaka, Biswadev A. Roy, George P

Sean Raffuse, Tom Pierce, Tom Pace

Brad Pierce and James Szykman

Photo courtesy of B

16th Annual Emissions 

Inventory Conference, 2007
General Purp

Quantify the ability of s

to define area bu

in an effort to enhance th

temporal estimates o

burning and emi

by comparing ground- 

based fire dat

1 year after fire

Specific Purp

* Compare coincident sa

fire detections to gro

* Compare all fire det

ground-based d

* Compare an area burn
Motivation

Biomass burning:  Major contributor of par

matter and other pollu

 Poorly defined. Impedes the ability of reg

achieve National AmbiQuality Standards for Pand ozone.

 No standard biomass bur

products exist for the UStates.

Fireweed 1 year after burn

Satellite imagery offers: (1) the opportunity to objectiv

sense fire across governmenand private boundaries and 

(2) the data is available in Near
Biomass burning emissions estimates 

continually improved and modified but a

on the original work of Seiler and Crutz

Total direct carbon emissions (C

t

)

C

t = Bfc

β

A is area; 

B is biomass density; 

fc is carbon fraction of the biomass; 

β is the fraction of biomass consumed 

Emissions factors or ratios 

to estimate species specific emissions

Step TwoStep One

A
Two satellite products

(1) Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer 

and 

(2 ) Geostationary Operational Environmental Satell

Automated Biomass Burning Algorithm (ABB

MODIS

sun-synchronous orbit

twice daily (terra & aqua)

spatial resolution 1 km2

GOES

geostationary o

15 minute (east & 

spatial resolution 1
Methodology 

Spatial and temporal analysis of MODIS, GOES and Western Region Air Partnership (WRAP) data for Oregon AriJuly 2002 September and Aug** Additions- Relax the space and time criteria to morrealistically define coincidence based on plessons learned.- Assess a methodology for defining area 
MODIS data process

MODIS Terra and Aqua d

downloaded from th

Rapid Response Fire te

Exclude data that are < 20% 

Convert the point data 

ArcGIS shape files

These are point data, no 

Buffered the data to 0.5 km (size 

account for the instrument spati

Buffered data an additional 1 km 

Fireweed for the Point Response Fu
GOES data processing

 Downloaded data from the historic filtered ABBA d

website: Fire Locating and Modeling of Burning (FLAMBE) 

 Integrated 1⁄2 hour data from GOES east & west int Combined data from GOES east and GOES west Delete low probability fire data (flag 5) Average the area of processed data (flag 0) and assi

average area to flags 1 – 4 (in each state). 

 Generate a cumulative ArcGIS shape file. Polygons 

defined by area. ** **

 Data are buffered to 5 km to account for the instrum

spatial resolution and the Point Response Funct

  Area computed for the process data (flag 0) rep

instantaneous fire area burning ** **
Western Region Air Partn

or WRAP Ground Fire 

Inventories prepared for 2002 em

inventories for wildfire, wildland 

prescribed burning in wildlands, n

rangeland fires and agricultural 

(209 reports, NIFMD/USFS, SACS/

reports, state and local data, 

These data have been checked, geol

quality control reviewed by Air Sc

Treatment

 Data are converted to ArcGIS sha

where area defines the polygo

 We concentrate on fires that burn

Oregon, July 2002 and inArizona, August and Septemb

P. Siberica under a

P. Sylvestris canopy
Zoom to data: 

MODIS and GOES, area and buffered d
Zoom – Note the size and number of fire records surr

WRAP fire data (red buffered with reported area 

(16,925 a

July 25

Aqua68 recordsJuly 18-29, 2002Terra 132 recordsJuly 23-31, 2002GOES 28.39 km

2

July 7-21, 2002
Au

July 21, 2002 July 05, 2002

Septem

July Bufferedsatellite data

Evolution of the Biscuit fire

Allsatellitepoint data
Criteria for Coincidence

(1) Time

- Satellite data must be wor contiguous days of threported in the WRAP dexcluding agricultural arangeland data.

(2) Space

- Center of MODIS pixewith 3 km of reported fiand GOES within 10 kmor- When a buffered space another buffered space, it is not physically touchWRAP data, it is still co

1 year after burn potentially be coincident
There is error in the ground-based dat

Several agencies do not report fires that bur

acres (0.40 km

2) in a day.

One of these fires 

current temporal cr

the other does 

All the satellites detect fire but 

there is no coincident 

ground data.
Spatial coin

in satellite- ground-basfire data.Oregon, Ju
All satellites, all 

area 181%

Combined

representative

satellite area

97%

500,555

(1.98 –

54400.5)

[21,570 

Agric. acres]

296

[312]

Oregon ground,

101 fires,

mean 1691 

acres

[Agric. Fires]

mean 69 acres

94%, 98%

(detect = 1km2)

[10% Ag area]

350,643 

(from 

1984 detections)

MODIS Aqua

[Agric. Fires]

126%, 131%

(detect = 1km2)

[10% Ag area]

682,268

(from 

2761 detections)

MODIS Terra

[Agric. Fires]

37%, 32%

(Instantaneous)

[20% Ag area]

197,655

(1.16 –

1996 806.66)

GOES ABBA

[Agric. Fires]

% area burned 

all grnd. data,

% area non-ag

% area ag

Non – Ag 

acres burned 

(range)

Number 

of 

records Data source
R2 = 0.72

R2 = 0.84

R2 = 0.87

0

100200300400500600700800900

0 100 200 300 400 500

Ground-based area burned (km2)

Satellite-based area burned (kTerra

AquaGOES

Oregon July, 2002: 

Coincident satellite- and ground-based fire 

[wildfire, wildland fire use, prescribed burning in w

Satellite-based area burned (km

2

)
Arizo

August 

Septem

2002

Spatial coincidence in satellite- and ground-based fire data.
All sat. 171 %,

Representative 

area 40%,

w/out rangeland 

69%

22,613 acres

mean 113 acres,

range 

(0.5 - 1598)

18,750 acres

165 fires

201 

records

34 nonfed range

Arizona 

ground 

fire data, 

Non-federal 

rangeland

76 % all

(1km2 detection)

31,382 acres

MODIS Aqua 162 (from detections)

77 % all

(1km2 detection)

31,877 acres

MODIS Terra 168 (from detections)

18 % all

(Instantaneous)

7358 acres

GOES ABBA 169

Percent

area burned, 

all data

Non-federal 

rangeland

acres burned 

Non-federal 

Rangeland

Number 

of 

records

Data source

(1 km2 = 247 acres or 100 ha)
R2 = 0.95

R2 = 0.99

R2 = 0.65

0

102030405060

0 5 10 15 20 25

Ground-based area burned (km2)

Satellite-based area burned (k

TerraAquaGOES

Arizona: September and August, 2002 

Coincident satellite- and ground-based fire d

[wildfire, wildland fire use, prescribed burning in w

Satellite-based area burned (km

2

)
Typically large fires account for the greatest a

area burned and emissions.

In Canada, the largest 2-3% of the fires accou

98% of the area burned (Stocks, 1991

Alaskan fire records show that since 1950, 96% 

burned is by large (> 2000 ha) fires (AFS, 

In Oregon (July 2002), the largest 10% of the f

account for 80% of the area burned

(largest 2% - 40% area burned).

In Arizona (September and August 2002)

relationship does not hold due to rangeland fir

rnglnds, lgst 10% fires - 74% area burn

Photo courte
Total area comparison 

using detections and instantaneous area,without coincidence consideration.

All values in Km

2

Arizona all MODIS 197% > WRAP 23% of W

Oregon all MODIS 225% > WRAP 38% of W

Total percent difference 

Arizona 168 162 38 

Oregon 2761 1984 800 

GOES 

instantane

MODIS Terra MODIS Aqua area
Biscuit fire

July 2002 an

MODIS (Terra and Aqua) dataCombined, buffered to 0.50 radius (1 pixel area = 0.79 km2) 

and aggregated (overlap removed).
July 05, 2002 July 21, 2002 Aug

Evolutionof theBiscuit fire

July Analysis

Biscuit –

July 14-31, 2002

115,500 acres

455 km2 Carter – July 13, 2002

25 acres0.10 km2

Ground-based 

area burned

Fire detections 

(1 detect = 1 km2)

Aqua

423 records

July 11-29, 2002

Terra 

746 records

July 14-31, 2002

(MODIS 257% >)

GOES 

231.79 km2

July 4-31, 2002 (51%)

Area bu

482.94 
Fire product generated from lessons learned:

MODIS data combined, buffered and aggregatplusGOES data in agricultural lands x 5Total area captured:Arizona - 81% of all fires 

(wildfire, prescribed and rangeland)

Oregon - 92% of all fires 

(wildfire, prescribed and agricultural)

Photo court
Photo court

Arizona all MODIS 197% > WRAP 23% of W

Oregon all MODIS 225% > WRAP 38% of W

Total percent difference 

Arizona 168 162 38 

Oregon 2761 1984 800 

GOES 

instantane

MODIS Terra MODIS Aqua area

Satellite and ground comparisonAll data including non-coincident

MODIS area burned product

Total area captured:Arizona - 81% of all fires (wildfire, prescribed and rOregon - 92% of all fires (wildfire, prescribed and a
Conclusions

Oregon

53 % of the number of fires are identified by satellite97 % of the combined area burned is identified by saTotal area comparison (coincident and non-coincide

MODIS 225%; GOES 38 %

GOES identifies 34% of Agric. fires (Terra and Aqu

Arizona

20 % of the number of fires are identified by satellite69 % of the area burned is identified by satelliteTotal area comparison (coincident and non-coincide

MODIS 197 %; GOES 23 %

Total area captured with a combined product:Arizona - 81% of all fires (wildfire, prescribed and raOregon - 92% of all fires (wildfire, prescribed and ag
Ultimately, biomass emission estimates could b

improved with the addition of a satellite-based burned product. These data have the potentiathe science and remotely-sensed emissions forw
Acknowledgements Acknowledgements

Elaine Prins and Chris Schmidt and Chris Schmidt

NASA Langley Research Center, Enviro

NASA Langley Research Center, Enviro

Protection Agency, Regional Plann

Protection Agency, Regional Plann

Organizations, NOAA, Air Sciences 

Organizations, NOAA, Air Sciences 

SSAI, Sonoma Technologies SSAI, Sonoma Technologies and 

National Institute of Aerospace National Institute of Aerospace
M

P

S
Average Spectra from Helicopter: Yartsevo 200

local time ~ 16:00 - 18:00, Field Of View 42m

0

0.05

0.1

0.15

0.2

0.25

0.3

0.35

350 850 1350 1850 2350

Wavelength (nm)

Reflectance

Ch. 1 Ch. 2

(Soja unp
Active F

Detected by 

channel 3 (3

Considerations

Clouds prohibit detection.

Fire size?

Fire intensity?

Viewing angle of satellite?

Instrument spatial resolution?

Instrument temporal resolution? 
Identifying bur

in AVHRR im
Total Biscuit fire

3077 km2 or 769,338 acresTerra 2672 Aqua 147526% greater, keeping in mind Aqua 1st started recoding