Comparing geostationary and polar-orbiting satellite sensor estimates of Fire Radiative Power (FRP) during the Black Summer Fires (2019–2020) in south-eastern Australia
Konstantinos Chatzopoulos-Vouzoglanis![https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7502-4216](/media/client/orcid_16x16.png)
A STEM College, RMIT University, Melbourne, Vic. 3000, Australia.
B SmartSat Cooperative Research Centre, Adelaide, SA 5000, Australia.
International Journal of Wildland Fire 31(6) 572-585 https://doi.org/10.1071/WF21144
Submitted: 22 October 2021 Accepted: 31 March 2022 Published: 11 May 2022
© 2022 The Author(s) (or their employer(s)). Published by CSIRO Publishing on behalf of IAWF. This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License (CC BY-NC-ND)
Abstract
Background: We compared estimates of Fire Radiative Power (FRP) from sensors onboard geostationary Himawari-8 (BRIGHT_AHI) and polar-orbiting TERRA/AQUA (MOD14/MYD14) satellites during the 2019/2020 Black Summer Fires in South-Eastern Australia.
Aim/methods: Analysis was performed on a pixel, bioregion, and wildfire event basis to assess the utility of the new BRIGHT_AHI FRP product.
Key results: Results show a high agreement between the products (r = 0.74, P < 0.01) on a pixel level, with BRIGHT_AHI generally underestimating FRP compared to MOD14/MYD14. Regional spatiotemporal trends were captured in more detail by BRIGHT_AHI due to its higher temporal resolution, with MOD14/MYD14 systematically underestimating the total and sub-diurnal FRP values. Nevertheless, both datasets captured similar fire ignition and spread patterns for the study region. On the event level, the correlation between the datasets was moderate (r = 0.49, r = 0.67), when considering different temporal constraints for hotspot matching.
Conclusions: The results of this study indicate that BRIGHT_AHI approximates the well-established MOD14/MYD14 product during concurrent observations, while revealing additional temporal information for FRP trends.
Implications: This gives confidence in the reliability of BRIGHT_AHI FRP estimates, opening the way for a denser observation record (10-min intervals) that will provide new opportunities for fire activity reporting, some of which are presented here.
Keywords: Black Summer Fires, BRIGHT, fire intensity, Fire Radiative Power, geostationary, Himawari-8, intercomparison, MOD14/MYD14, MODIS.
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