Remote Sens. 2015, 7(11), 15782-15803; https://doi.org/10.3390/rs71115782
An Algorithm for Burned Area Detection in the Brazilian Cerrado Using 4 µm MODIS Imagery
Renata Libonati 1,*
, Carlos C. DaCamara 2,†, Alberto W. Setzer 3,†, Fabiano Morelli 3 and Arturo E. Melchiori 3
, Carlos C. DaCamara 2,†, Alberto W. Setzer 3,†, Fabiano Morelli 3 and Arturo E. Melchiori 3
1
Departamento de Meteorologia, Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro, Rio de Janeiro 21941-916, Brazil
2
Instituto Dom Luiz, Faculdade de Ciências, Universidade de Lisboa, Lisboa 1749-016, Portugal
3
Instituto Nacional de Pesquisas Espaciais, São José dos Campos 12227-010, Brazil
†
These authors contributed equally to this work.
*
Author to whom correspondence should be addressed.
Academic Editors: Ruiliang Pu, Ioannis Gitas and Prasad S. Thenkabail
Received: 14 September 2015 / Revised: 4 November 2015 / Accepted: 16 November 2015 / Published: 24 November 2015
Abstract
The Brazilian Cerrado is significantly affected by anthropic fires every year, which makes the region an important source of pyrogenic emissions. This study aims at generating improved 1 km monthly burned area maps for Cerrado based on remote-sensed information. The algorithm relies on a burn-sensitive vegetation index based on MODIS daily values of near and middle infrared reflectance and makes use of active fire detection from multiple sensors. Validation is performed using reference burned area (BA) maps derived from Landsat imagery. Results are also compared with MODIS standard BA products. A monthly BA database for the Brazilian Cerrado is generated covering the period 2005–2014. Estimated value of BA is 1.3 times larger than the value derived from reference data, making the product suitable for applications in fire emission studies and ecosystem management. As expected the intra and inter-annual variability of estimated BA over the Brazilian Cerrado is in agreement with the regime of precipitation. This work represents the first step towards setting up a regional database of BA for Brazil to be developed in the framework of BrFLAS, an R and D project in the areas of fire emissions and ecosystem management planning. View Full-TextKeywords:
burned area; Cerrado; fire regime; MODIS; remote sensing; savanna
▼
Figures
Figure 1
This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited (CC BY 4.0).
Share & Cite This Article
MDPI and ACS Style
Libonati, R.; DaCamara, C.C.; Setzer, A.W.; Morelli, F.; Melchiori, A.E. An Algorithm for Burned Area Detection in the Brazilian Cerrado Using 4 µm MODIS Imagery. Remote Sens. 2015, 7, 15782-15803.
Related Articles
Article Metrics
Comments
[Return to top]
Remote Sens.
EISSN 2072-4292
Published by MDPI AG, Basel, Switzerland
RSS
E-Mail Table of Contents Alert