Derivation of Burnt Areas from Sentinel-3 and MODIS data for the European Forest Fire Information System using Active Contour Level Sets

Abstract

The European Forest Fire Information System (EFFIS) provides timely and reliable information on wildland firesin Europe since 1998. As a Copernicus Emergency Management Service, EFFIS is supporting agencies in chargeof the protection of forests within the European Union. The services comprise the daily analysis and publication ofweather based fire danger information, as well as the timely delivery of active fire locations and recently occuredburnt areas.The German Aerospace Center (DLR) / Department of Geo-Risks and Civil Security has been entrustedwith the task of the analysis, derivation and delivery of burnt areas from Sentinel-3 and MODIS data. . In thisregard, a methodology has been developed, as well as implemented and tested, to efficiently derive reliableand accurate burnt area perimeters for different optical earth observation satellites. The procedure is based onwell-known vegetation related differential indices, such as dNDVI, dBAI and dMSAVI , but primarily uses theActive Contour Level Set method for accurate differentiation between burnt and non-burnt areas via an energyfunction. The fully automated processing chain comprises the pre-processing of satellite data, as well as histogrammatching, mosaic generation and functions for the tracking of burnt area growth over time.Hotspot data from DLR's TET-1 and BIROS satellites are used to verify the validity and accuracy of thederived perimeters.