Fire Detection from satellite: 12 March 2008

Robert Rabin1

1NOAA/NSSL and UW-Madison/CIMSS

BACKGROUND

Fire locations are available from the GOES Automated Biomass Burning Algorithm (ABBA) produced at the Cooperative Instutute of Meteorological Satellite Studies (CIMSS), University of Wisconsin-Madison.  Before investigating these, a preliminary look at the fires in Oklahoma are presented from GOES visible and IR imagery is presented here.

Java based applications used for interactive animations were developed by Tom Whittaker of the Space Science and Engineering Center  SSEC, University of Wisconsin-Madison.  The animations can take a while to load, depending on network speed, computer systems, etc. Also, there can be a problem viewing these on certain machines (Macs).
 


Movie 1. Animated imagery (visible, 3.9 micron, and 10.7-13.3 micron) from GOES-12.

Movie 2. Animated imagery (visible, 3.9 micron, and 10.7-12 micron) from GOES-11.

Fig. 1 Comparison between KTLX reflectivity at 2117 UTC and GOES-12 visible and 3.9 micron radiance


Fig. 2. Movie of radar reflectivity (KTLX 0.5 deg scans) superimposed on GOES 3.9 micron radiance.

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Fig. 3. Movie of radar reflectivity (KTLX 0.5 deg scans)

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Fig. 4. Movie of radar reflectivity (KTLX RHI scan: 160 deg radial)

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Fig. 5. Movie of GOES 3.9 micron radiance

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Fig. 6. Movie of GOES visible and 3.9 micron radiance (hot spots in red)

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The fire locations can be seen as very dark spots (high brightness temperature) in the 3.9 micron band. These locations are obsured by clouds at some of the later times. Smoke plumes are evident in the visible imagery when not obsured by clouds. The 10.7-13.3 micron brightness temperature difference from GOES-12 is greater than zero (blue) for clear sky and thin clouds. It approaches zero for thick clouds and smoke. The 10.7-12 micron brightness temperature difference from GOES-11 is also greater than zero (blue) for clear sky and thin clouds, however smoke or dust can sometime be indicated by a negative difference (green).


                                 

      
 

Disclaimer. The products from GOES or other satellites shown here are experimental. These have been generated within a research environment and are not intended to be considered operational. Timeliness, availability, and accuracy are sought but not guaranteed.

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