MODIS reflective and active fire data for burn mapping at regional level

Abstract

This paper presents an analysis on the forest fires occurred in Galicia (northwest Spain) in August 2006, when nearly 930km2 were almost entirely burned over the course of eight days. This study presents an algorithm for burn mapping that synergistically combines remotely-sensed reflectance and active fire data as measured by the MODIS (MODerate resolution Imaging Spectrometer) sensor on board Terra NASA (National Aeronautics and Space Administration) satellite. Burned area data collected from this work was compared to official fires statistics from the Spanish Ministry of Environment and to perimeters that were derived using a high spatial resolution satellite image