Evaluation of High Temperature Event Detection Algorithms with the space-borne TET-1 Infrared Sensor

Abstract

High temperature events such as wildfires or volcanic eruptions are highly dynamic and critical elements influencing the earth system on a global to local scale. Despite their hazardous characteristics and increasing impact, high temperature events are still poorly understood and not well monitored. DLR´s FireBIRD mission including the experimental micro-satellite TET-1 aims to improve monitoring and understanding of these events. With its higher spatial resolution and extended dynamic range in the MWIR and LWIR channels, the sensor capabilities for high temperature event detection are superior to current operational systems. In this investigation, the transfer, adaption and testing of the contextual hot spot detection algorithm by Zhukov et al. (2006), originally designed for the BIRD satellite, is implemented for TET-1. In addition, the adapted algorithm is compared with well-established high temperature event detection algorithms for AVHRR, MODIS, VIIRS and Sentinel-3 SLSTR. Detection results for the case study of a wildfire in Portugal in August 2016 are validated with MODIS MOD14 C6 and VIIRS active fire data, confirming the high performance of the system.