Active fires from the Suomi NPP Visible Infrared Imaging Radiometer Suite: Product status and first evaluation results

Abstract

The Visible Infrared Imaging Radiometer Suite (VIIRS) sensor on the Suomi National Polar-orbiting Partnership (S-NPP) satellite incorporates fire-sensitive channels, including a dual-gain high-saturation temperature 4 μm channel, enabling active fire detection and characterization. The active fire product, based on the 750 m moderate resolution "M" bands of VIIRS, is one of the standard operational products generated by the Interface Data Processing Segment of the S-NPP ground system. The product builds on an earlier "Collection 4" version of the algorithm used for processing Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) data. Following postlaunch quality assessments and corrections in the input VIIRS Sensor Data Record data processing, an initial low detection bias was removed and the product achieved Beta quality in April 2012. Daily spurious detections along-scan lines were also significantly reduced as a result of further processing improvements in October 2012. Direct product comparison with MODIS over 4 months of data in 2013 has shown that VIIRS produces approximately 26% more detections than MODIS within the central 3 pixel VIIRS aggregation zone of approximately ±31°scan angle range and 70% more detections outside of that zone, mainly as a result of the superior VIIRS scanning and sampling characteristics. Further development is in progress to ensure high-quality VIIRS fire products that continue the MODIS data record and better serve the user community by delivering a full image classification product and fire radiative power retrievals. Research is also underway to take advantage of the radiometric signal from the 375 m VIIRS imager "I" bands. IntroductionActive fire data from spaceborne sensors have been available since the 1980s [Ichoku et al., 2012;Matson and Holben, 1987;Setzer and Pereira, 1991]. The increased thermal signal of active fires in the 4 μm channel, together with radiometric measurements in the longwave and shortwave channels, enables the detection of thermal anomalies from moderate to coarse spatial resolution sensors [Dozier, 1981;Robinson, 1991] for a wide range of environmental and observing conditions [Giglio et al., 1999]. The series of U.S. polar orbiter environmental satellites provided a crucial contribution to the international suite of sensors flown by various space agencies on both polar and geostationary platforms [Justice et al., 2013a]. On the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's (NOAA) polar orbiters, the 1 km advanced very high resolution radiometer (AVHRR) sensor has been used worldwide for operational fire monitoring and for research purposes since the early 1990s [Justice and Tucker, 2009], with different algorithms using the signal from the fire's thermal emission in the 3.7 μm channel as the main driver for active fire detection [Giglio et al., 1999;Li et al., 2000;Lasaponara et al., 2003]. A number of operational fire monitoring systems around the world have been using AVHRR as one of the primary sensors. Examples include the NOAA H...

Intercomparison of MODIS and VIIRS Fire Products in Khanty-Mansiysk Russia: Implication for Characterizing Gas Flaring from Space

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“…The capability of these bands highlighted by them for fire monitoring formed the basis of many fire detection algorithms (MODIS, VIIRS, AVHRR etc.) developed afterwards (Weaver et al, 2004;Giglio et al, 2003;Csiszar et al, 2014). A limitation of the fire algorithms based on MWIR and LWIR bands is that the measured brightness temperature is dependent on the background temperature which means the total radiance observed by the satellite instrument is the result of both burning (subpixel fire) and non-burning fractions (background) of the ground pixel.…”

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Quantifying Gas Flaring CH4 Consumption Using VIIRS

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