Simulation of Infrared Radiation from Biomass Fires and Retrieval of Smoke Particle Parameters

Abstract

The intelligent infrared sensor system FOCUS to be flown on the International Space Station is a unique combination of imagers and a spectrometer dedicated to demonstrate the feasibility of autonomous detection, analysis, and classification of fires and volcanoes. The paper discusses first results of radiative transfer simulations and gas/aerosols retrievals. Difficulties in the analysis of the combined low spatial resolution spectrometer and low spectral resolution imager observations are discussed and a sequential data fusion approach is introduced. The importance of aerosol contributions is investigated and the feasibility to retrieve smoke particle parameters is demonstrated.