Fire-detection by AVHRR: toward a new approach for operational monitoring

摘要

The most commonly used fire detection methods based on AVHRR (Advanced Very High Resolution Radiometer aboard NOAA satellites) observations have been applied, in this work, to the Italian Peninsula, in order to assess their effectiveness and robustness in an operational scheme for fire monitoring in different areas. The analysis developed so far shows that unsuccessful results obtained from existing detection methods mainly depend on the use of generalised, fixed threshold values, in the fire-detection tests. A new fire-detection technique, based on the most general RAT (Robust AVHRR Technique) approach, is proposed in this work. It seems able to joins good performances, typically associated with techniques based on locally tuned thresholds, withhigh operational exportability, achieved by an automated implementation scheme completely based on AVHRR data at hands. Improvements achievable by using this new approach over the Italian Peninsula, have been evaluated (for several forest-fire events anddifferent observational conditions) by comparison with the historical records of the Italian Forestry Service.