An Improved Algorithm of Wildfire Detection and a Method of Wildfire Observation for ValidationKoji Nakau Ph.D (JAXA/EORC)Masami Fukuda Ph.D (Fukuyama City Univ.)Hiroki Eto (Japan Airlines Co., Ltd.)

nakau.koji@jaxa.jp

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Importance of Satellite Infomation on Wildfire

• Importance of Wildfire– Environment: Severe impact on ecology, Soil or Peat– Climate: Non-negligible GHGs emission– Disaster: Needs for saving life, welth and society

• Roles of Satellite imagery for Wildfire – Information for Fire Service for Efficient activity

– High resolution is demanded for judge accessbility.– Map or image are not distributable in developping countries. – More verbal information is demanded.

– Fire is small and rare event• Getting ground based validation data is not so easy• Especially comparison with observation by human eyes

Aim of This Research• Improve fire detection algorithm

– To improve, not detected fire is important

• Observe wildfire from cockpit– Air carrier can ovserve wide area everyday

• Utilization of future sensors – SGLI (Second generation Global Imager)– CIRC(Compact InfraRed Camera)

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JAXA’s Activity Related to this Research

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Fire Suppression

Data Providing

Fire DetectionValidationData

Fire DetectionAlgorithm

Sentinel Asia

JICA-JST

AFS

JAL Fire Obs.

AFS Fire Info

Wild Fire MonitorSystem

JICA-JST

Throughout from Algorithm to Social Implementation

Observ. Algorithm System Social Impr.

GCOM-C MODIS

CIRC@ISS/ALOS2Astronaut ?JASMES

Fire Location in AK

Fire Location in INA

Observation by human eye High res. Thermal IR sensor

Fire Suppression in AK

Fire Suppression in Indonesia

Distribute Disaster Infomation

Global Wildfire Detection

Wildfire Detection Algorithm

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Approach to Detect Fire

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We need to estimate radiation from fire to detect fire.

Radiation from FireEmission

from BackgroundReflectance of Background

Total Radiance of Satellite Observation

What we need is Radiation from Fire

Estimated byThermal Infrared

Estimated bySWIR

RadBG.Ref RadBG.Ems RadFire

Rad4mm

Distribution of Hotspots

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Result of Fire DetectionAlgorithm developed

Reflection from background land cover considered▪ Ancillary algorithms are improved ; Cloud cover, Snow mask

Doubled S/N ratio (comparing to MOD14)▪ 80% more HS & 10% less False Alarm (2004 AK day MODIS)▪ Smoldering, small fire or slush and burn

Different Geographical Distribution

Next Step Validation Detect Smoldering (smoldering is not detected)

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Wildfire observation by JAL pilots

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Procedure of wildfire observation by JAL pilots

• When finding a wildfire, a pilot send a report to ground staff. This report is stored in database.

• Including location of aircraft, distance to wildfire and others. Authors estimated the location of wildfire using this report.

• However, utilization of these report does not go straight.– location is not so relyable

• Extraction of relyable location from reports needed.

A pilot send a reportto ground staff

Ground staff inputon the web form

Data base Validation

Sample of observed wildfire

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Estimating fire location from a fire report by pilot

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Waypoint

EstimatedLocation of Aircraft

AdjacentWaypoint

True north

True bearingMagnetic bearing

Magnetic north

16 bearing

Coordinates of waypoint+Distance from waypoint+Magnetic bering from waypoint+Declination

Coordinates of aircraft+Heading of aircraft

Airway

Wildfire reports in 2010

Wildfire observation in 2011 in Russia

Result of wildfire observation

• Total 990 reports are submitted from pilots in these 8 years.

• We needed trial and error to utilize this data. Therefore, analysis is still undergoing.

Year Duration JPN–EUR/America days report

2003 1 Jun - 31 Jul 62 101

2004 17 May - 31 Jul 76 77

2005 23 May - 5 Aug 75 30

2006 12 Jun - 12 Aug 62 138

2007 12 Jun - 12 Sep 62 172

2008 12 Jun - 12 Sep 93 263

2009 1 Jun - 1 Sep 93 158

2010 27 Jul～ 27 Sep 62 51

Wildfire on 07 Aug

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Wildfire on 07 Aug(with MODIS visible RGB on 07 Aug)

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Wildfire on 07 Aug(with RGB=MODIS:4mm/2.2mm/1.2mm on 07 Aug)

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Wildfire on 07 Aug(with RGB=MODIS:4mm/2.2mm/1.2mm on 07 Aug)

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Fraction of detection by satellite for observed fire

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NASA JAXA両方0%

25%

50%

75%

100%

MOD14Combination of Proposed

Failed to detect fire by MODIS

Succeed to detectfire by MODIS

• Location of observation is not so accurate.– # of fail to detect may

include such an error

• Overwrapped fire location might be relatively reliable.– previous slide is an

example

Summary• Proposed algorithm performed better

– For the observed fire by JAL• Reliable observed fire location

extracted– Observed fire pixel failed to detect by satellite

will be extracte based on this method.

Utilization of future sensorsSGLI (Second generation Global Imager)CIRC(Compact InfraRed Camera)

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CIRC/CALETon JEM/ISSFY2013

Swath: 80kmResolution: 115m

SGLI on GCOM-C1FY2015Swath: 1150kmResolution: 250m

CIRCon ALOS-2FY2013

Swath: 130kmResolution: 200m

Integrative Analysis of middle-high resolution IR sensor datasets.

Submitting the latest fire fighting aid data

JAXA’s sensors to be available for wildfire

Collaboration withUNIFORM

MODIS 2009-09-26CIRC (simulated from TM) 2009-09-26

Locations of burning fire can be identified as .

SGLI(250m) ＋ CIRC(115m)for accurate fire location

現在主流の MODIS では、場所が 1km 単位でしか分からない

Hotspotby MODIS

Summary• Importance of Wildfire Management

– Fire emit ¼ to ½ as much as GHG by human• JAXA Wildfire Monitoring

– JAXA will launch several sensorsavailable for wildfire monitoring from FY2013

– Algorithm with better performance• Wildfire observation by JAL

– 990 ovservation has reported.– Reliability of location is improving– Identified fire pixels failed to detect fire