Burnt Area Monitoring In Near-Real Time - Combining High Spatial And Temporal Resolution

Kurzfassung

Devastating fire events in Europe (e.g. Greece 2023, Spain 2022) but also on a global scale (e.g. Chile 2024, Canada 2023) show the importance to mitigate wildfire spreading as early as possible. This implies the availability of timely, accurate and robust information. The Center for Satellite-based Crisis Information (ZKI) Wildfire Monitoring System, operated at the German Aerospace Center (DLR), is a research platform providing satellite-derived burnt area information for Europe and North Africa. The information is provided in near-real time whenever new satellite overpasses are available. In order to provide the highest possible update frequency, the system supports a multitude of input sensors. While the system is primarily based on mid-resolution data, latest developments have been focussing on enhancing the results with higher-resolution data as soon as these data become available. This includes the DLR sensors DESIS and EnMap, the first two hyperspectral sources utilized by the system. However, since the sensors feature 235 and 222 spectral bands, respectively, efforts have been undertaken to define which bands yield the highest benefit for burnt area analysis.