Continuous Monitoring of Forest Fires in Mediterranean Area Using MSG

Fires represent one of the main factors of degradation and destruction of the Mediterranean forest heritage. According to fire-fighting agencies, a satellite-based fire-detection system can be considered operationally useful for Mediterranean countries when fires with a minimum extent of 1500 m2 can be detected with a temporal resolution of 30 min. In fact, such a system should be able to detect fires at their first stage when it is possible to extinguish them more easily. The Centro di Ricerca Progetto San Marco has been analyzing for several years the possibility of using images acquired by the Spinning Enhanced Visible and Infrared Imager (SEVIRI) sensor onboard the geostationary satellite Meteosat Second Generation (MSG) for this purpose. A new processing approach exploiting the increase in both spatial and temporal resolution (15 min) with respect to previous Meteosat systems is described in this paper. The idea is based on the use of a change detection technique to maximize the detection capabilities of the system in spite of its limited spatial resolution. This technique consists of comparing two or more images acquired at 15-min intervals, for which any temperature change can be attributed to fast dynamic phenomena, such as fires, when natural changes are modeled and removed. An assessment of the performances of this algorithm is carried out comparing its results with the report made available by Italian fire-fighting agencies and with fire products based on higher resolution sensors such as the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS).