Space-borne high resolution fire remote sensing in Benin

An experiment on high resolution remote sensing of fires was conducted in the Oue´me´ catchment area of Benin, West Africa using the Bi-spectral InfraRed Detection (BIRD) satellite. The high spatial resolution capability of the BIRD system allows the detection of fires with active burning areas less than a few hundred square metres in the sub-pixel domain, as well as the estimation of quantitative characteristics of these fires, such as the radiative fire energy release and (less accurately) the effective fire temperature and area