13 May 2009 CAWCR Fire Weather Research Workshop 1

Remote Sensing Opportunities for Fire Weather Research

Ian GrantSpace Based Observations Section

Bureau of Meteorology

13 May 2009 CAWCR Fire Weather Research Workshop 2

Geostationary andGeostationary andpolar orbiter satellitespolar orbiter satellites

• Geostationary

– Hourly

– 5 bands

– VIS 1 km, IR 5 km

– MTSAT-1R (140°E)

– FY-2C (105°E)

• Polar

– Daily

– NOAA (AVHRR)

– - 5 bands, 1 km

– Terra, Aqua (MODIS)

– - 36 bands, 0.25-1 km

Bureau's Crib Point Ground Station

13 May 2009 CAWCR Fire Weather Research Workshop 3

Fuel

Non-forest

o Grassland Curing (from current BCRC)

o Biomass

• Temporal Integration of NDVI

• Growth models driven by meteorology

Forest

o Challenging from passive imaging

o Hyperspectral & lidar

• Composition (species, green/woody/dead)

• Stress, Fuel load and moisture, Structure

• Airborne (UNSW + CRC-SI work on forest fuel)

• Research satellites from ~2013

13 May 2009 CAWCR Fire Weather Research Workshop 4

Hotspots

MODIS, AVHRR (Sentinel)o Needs amalgamation?

o Needs history accessibility?

Geostationaryo Hourly

o Low spatial resolution and sensitivity

o Boosts detection rate from AVHRR/MODIS-only

o Landgate (WA) have experimented

Ad hoc high-resolution at urban interface?

SentinelSentinelHotspotsHotspotsJuly 2007July 2007

© Commonwealth of Australia 2007ACRES Geoscience Australia

13 May 2009 CAWCR Fire Weather Research Workshop 5

Fire Intensity

Fire Radiative Power (During fire)

o Researched overseas – relation between FRP and emissions (NT plans: Stefan Maier, CDU)

o Standard MODIS product

Fire severity (Post-burn)

o NT spectral work (Andrew Edwards, CDU, BCRC)

CO from MOPITT, AIRS

Use in carbon emissions assessment?

13 May 2009 CAWCR Fire Weather Research Workshop 6

Smoke

Aerosol estimation over land Traditionally difficult (AVHRR, MODIS, GEO) … but recent progress with

o Multiple views (MISR, AATSR, POLDER)o Polarisation (POLDER)o Lidar (CALIPSO)Under development for Australia (Ross Mitchell)

Potential uses:o Initialisation/nudging and validation of smoke transport

modellingo Carbon emissions assessmento Air quality, including in connection with prescribed fire

13 May 2009 CAWCR Fire Weather Research Workshop 7

Burned area

AVHRR (1 km), MODIS (500 m)

Many years history

Validation:

o NT extensive

o Other states some

History needs better accessibility?

30-m from Landsat. Needs resources. Geoscience Australia holds data archive.

13 May 2009 CAWCR Fire Weather Research Workshop 8

Atmospheric Water Vapour

Geostationary satellites image upper atmospheric WV hourly

Ground-based GPS

o Continuous, Resolution ≤1-hour

o OEB developmental real-time system

o Network densities

Now ~2013

National 16 150

Vic 34 100

NSW 50

…

13 May 2009 CAWCR Fire Weather Research Workshop 9

NCRIS/TERN AusCover

Terrestrial Ecosystem Research Network

AusCover

o Nationally consistent delivery and calibration of terrestrial satellite datasets for use in ecosystem science and NRM.

o Core set of standardised biophysical data products, calibrated for Australian conditions.

o A distributed data archive and access capability. Several regional nodes and calibration test sites.

Datasets likely to includeo Fire: Hotspots, Burned area

o MODIS: Land-cover types, LAI, fPAR, woody/herbaceous/grass/bare fractions

o Time-series of forest, non-forest cover

o NDVI

o …

13 May 2009 CAWCR Fire Weather Research Workshop 10

Summary

Grassland Curing Mature

Grassland Biomass Needs development

Forest fuel structure & state Developing

Hotspots Mature

Fire Radiative Power Needs development

Burn Severity Developing

Smoke Developing

Burned Area Mature

13 May 2009 CAWCR Fire Weather Research Workshop 11

TERN AusCover