Fire Remote Sensing: Capabilities, Innovations, Opportunities and Challenges

Dear Colleagues,

The recent, dramatic increase in the destructiveness of fires motivates the need for more scientific research on this multi-faceted topic.  Both focused, topical research and higher-level research, which may even be interdisciplinary, are needed to bend the curve of fire effects so that direct impacts on safety, wildlife, and ecology, and indirect impacts on air quality and even landscape stability are better understood.  These are complex topics, covering spatial scales ranging from the microscopic to the global, and time-scales of seconds to decades.  Remote sensing has played and will continue to play a significant role both in advancing fire science and in societal applications and response to fires.  Recent technological advancements in data coverage from ground, aerial (including manned aircrafts and drones), and satellite (both low-earth orbit, including rapid revisit constellations, and geosynchronous orbit) can speak directly to an array of fire research needs, but these data are highly underutilized at present. We therefore solicit manuscripts that advance the understanding of the role of remote sensing in advancing the scientific understanding of processes related to fire as well as its role in practical applications such as the evaluation of management practices, response, and recovery. Manuscripts can, but are not necessarily limited to responding to the following topics:

(1) Real-time monitoring of fire progression from public or private satellites or aircraft or drone operations.

(2) The strengths and weaknesses of existing or planned remote sensing assets to assess fire risk prior to ignition, monitor fire progression, or diagnose fire emissions/burned area.

(3) Conceptual and/or technical barriers to greater utilization of remote sensing for fire mitigation, and how they differ for real-time monitoring versus long-term risk abatement in the face of climate change.

(4) Remote sensing of weather conditions before, during, and after a fire, and implications for understanding of fire risk, fire behavior, and the effects of smoke.

(5) Remote sensing requirements to improve scientific understanding in fire risk and emissions in the short term and in the face of climate change.

(6) Remote sensing of fuels and their moisture content, including what instrument specifications are most valuable or needed.

(7) Remote sensing requirements needed to make substantial advances in fire behavior modeling. Manuscripts that show new capabilities from the new technologies, innovative new ways to use existing and/or new technologies, community-wide needs for fire remote sensing, and fundamental challenges that past, current, or future remote sensing systems face are particularly welcome.

Dr. Daniel Feldman
Guest Editor

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 250 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for assessment.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Remote Sensing is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2700 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.