Global Observation of Forest Cover GOFC: Fire

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Global Observation of Forest Cover (GOFC) Fire
S. E. Asia Fire Cal/Val Workshop January 22-24,
2002 Phuket, Thailand A special session of the
APAN Earth Monitoring Working Group
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Background to GOFC

• Developed originally under the Committee on Earth
  Observation Satellites (CEOS) initially as a
  pilot to test the concept of an Integrated Global
  Observing System
• IGOS goals
• To improve use of Earth Observation data to
  address major problems of global concern
• To improve coordination of national programs
• To improve co-operation between providers and
  users of Earth Observation data for regional and
  global applications.
• Has become one of the Panels of the Global
  Terrestrial Observing System GTOS (FAO GTOS
  Secretariat)
• Helping to address the Carbon Theme of the IGOS
  Partners
• Providing observations for the emerging
  Assessments

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Status of GOFC

• Design Phase completed ? initiating
  Implementation Phase
• Scope of GOFC transitioning from GOFC (Global
  Observations of Forest Cover) to GOLD (Global
  Observations of Landcover Dynamics) extending
  beyond areas of forest cover
• Principal Role of GOFC/GOLD is to act as a
  coordinating mechanism for national and regional
  activities.
• GOFC/GOLD regional networks developing as part of
  the program implementation
• Linkages being developed to the emerging
  Assessments ? Carbon, Millennium Ecosystems
  Assessment
• Series of Implementation Team workshops planned

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The Organization of GOFC
Implementation Teams, Activities and Projects
Fire Monitoring and Mapping??.. Cover
Characteristics and Changes.. Biophysical
Parameters?????
Scientific and Technology Board
Regional Activities and Networks
Collaborations e.g. WGISS and WGCV
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GOFC Fire Implementation Team

• The GOFC Forest Fire Monitoring and Mapping
  Implementation Team is responding to a critical
  need by fire management agencies, international
  agencies, and policy makers at national,
  regional and global levels, for accurate and
  timely information regarding wildfires in
  forestland and other vegetated areas.
• The Fire IT consists of a number of contributory
  activities from different research groups and
  organizations, which demonstrate the operational
  utility of satellite observations of fire, making
  the case for long-term observations of fire and
  the research and development necessary to
  improve these capabilities to meet user needs.

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GOFC ? Fire IT Members

• Olivier Arino, ESA/ESRIN, Italy
• Emilio Chuvieco, U. Alcala, Spain
• Chris Elvidge, NOAA/NGDC, USA
• Johann Goldammer, GFMC, Germany
• Jean-Marie Gregoire, JRC, Italy
• Chris Justice (Chairman), UMd, USA
• Bryan Lee, CFS, Canada
• Mastura Mahmud, UKM, Malaysia
• Elaine Prins, NOAA/NESDIS/ASPT, USA
• Brian Stocks, CFS/GLFC/IRM, Canada
• Anatoly Sukhinin, RAS, Russia
• --------------------------------------------------
  -----
• Joao Periera, IBAMA, Brazil, GOFC/GOLD Science
  and Technical Board
• Amy Friese, START, GOFC/GOLD Executive Committee
  - GOFC/GOLD Fellowships

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Summary of GOFC-Fire goals

• User awareness ? increased understanding of the
  utility of satellite fire products for resource
  management and policy (UN, Regional, National,
  Local) and Global Change Research
• Product accuracy ? operational network of fire
  validation sites and protocols established
  providing accuracy assessment for operational
  products and test bed for new or enhanced
  products ? leading to standard products of known
  accuracy
• Enhanced use of products and data access -
  operational multi-source fire / GIS products
  being made available including Web based data
  access
• Geostationary global fire network ? providing
  operational standard fire products (active fire)
  in a timely fashion
• Polar orbiters (with operational fire monitoring
  capability)
• providing operational moderate resolution
  long-term global fire products to meet user
  requirements and distributed ground stations
  providing enhanced regional products (fuel
  moisture content/active fire/burned area)
• operational high resolution acquisition allowing
  post-fire assessments
• Fire Emissions product suites - developed and
  implemented providing annual estimates with
  available input data and real time emissions
  products

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GOFC-Fire Workshops

• GOFC Fire Coordination Workshop ? JRC Ispra
  (1999)
• Fire Book (papers and discussion groups )
• S Africa Miombo GOFC Fire Workshop ? Matopos
  (1999)
• Burned Area Validation Protocols (SAFARI 2000)
  Zambia (2000)
• Southeast Asia GOFC Fire Workshop ? Tokyo (2001)
• WGISS TF GOFC Workshops ? Bangkok/ Tokyo
  (2000/2001)
• GOFC presentation / discussion ? EARSEL / Paris
  (2001)
• GOFC Fire Validation Workshop ? Lisbon (July ?01)
• GOFC SEARIN Fire Validation Workshop, Thailand
  (Jan 02)
• GOFC Fire Presentation / discussion ? Brazil (Mar
  02)
• GOFC Fire Emissions Models Workshop - Washington
  (June 02)
• GOFC Fire and Forest Cover ? Siberia (July 02)

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Fire Remote Sensing What do the users expect?
Location and timing of active fires Fire
intensity / combustion efficiency Return
frequency Burned area Vegetation type
(carbon stocks available for burning) Quantity
of biomass consumed by fire Vegetation
condition (fire risk) Aerosol optical
thickness / aerosol characteristics
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Fire remote sensing is viewed as one of the
primary sources of data for modeling the
Location, timing and quantity of smoke generation
for input into transport models Quantity
of trace gas emissions (CO2, CO, CH4 and others)
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Fire in S.E. Asia

• Fire affects all of the nations in S.E. Asia.
• Nearly all the fires in the region are man
  made.
• During dry years fires can rage uncontrollably.
• Fire is widely used to dispose of agricultural
  residues, short term enhancement of grazing
  conditions, and in the conversion of forests to
  agricultural land.
• Fire is one of the major factors in the region
  associated with global change.
• Impacts include transboundary smoke, loss of
  forests, loss of biodiversity, land degradation.
• Fire management is now recognized as an
  important function of government, requiring local
  and regional communication and cooperative
  effort.
• Fire management includes prediction of risk,
  prevention, detection, suppression, post fire
  assessment and recovery.

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Workshop Objectives While a number of resource
management and scientific applications for
satellite fire observations have been identified,
little is known about the accuracy and validity
of the various data sources and products or how
they might be used together for an improved
depiction of fire events. The objective of the
workshop is to initiate and plan the
intercomparison, calibration, and validation of
active fire and burn scar products from primary
sensor systems capable of making frequent wide
area observations of S.E. Asia. In addition, the
topics of building a regional capability to
generate satellite fire products and widening the
use of these products through open access and
interactive overlay of multiple data sources will
be explored.
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Why Accuracy Assessment? "There are many reasons
for performing an accuracy assessment. Perhaps
the simplest reason is curiosity - the desire to
know how good something is. In addition to the
satisfaction gained from knowledge, we also need
to increase the quality of the map information by
identifying and correcting the sources of errors.
Third, analysts often need to compare various
techniques, algorithms, analysts, or interpreters
to test which is best. Finally, if the
information derived from the remotely sensed data
is to be used in some decision-making process,
then it is critical that some measure of its
quality be known." Quotation from " Assessing
the Accuracy of Remotely Sensed Data Principles
an Practices", Russell G. Congalton and Kass
Green, 1999, Lewis Publishers.
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GOFC Fire Partnerships in S.E. Asia CEOS WG on
Cal/Val (WGOCV) Land Product Validation Subgroup
(LPV) CEOS Working Group on Information Systems
and Services (WGISS) Asia Pacific Advanced
Network (APAN) SINGAREN SEARIN ASEAN Program to
address ASEAN Regional Transboundary Smoke
(PARTS) Providers of satellite data and
products Universities, governments and
NGO's Others.....
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Fire validation site network

• GOFC/CEOS Land Product Validation (LPV) joint
  activity towards
• international standards and protocols for field
  sampling, scaling, error budgeting, data exchange
  and product evaluation
• mission-long validation programs for current and
  future earth observing satellites

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GOFC / LPV White paper on "Establishing
validation site network for remote sensing
applications to fire research" December
2001 Lists four areas of fire remote sensing
calibration / validation 1)Active fire
detections 2)Measurement of burnt
area 3)Estimation of combusted biomass 4)Estimatio
n of gas emissions (should also list aerosols?)
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December 2001White Paper Defines criteria for
selecting a global set of fire cal/val sites
Representation from the biomes most affected by
fires. Provide a wide variation in fire sizes
and types. Cover a wide range of land uses
Data rich sites where fire remote sensing groups
are concentrating efforts. Commitment to
collection and analysis of ground truth and
satellite data. Willingness to share data
within network of participants.
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December 2001 White Paper Sites nominated
through a letter of commitment from the "Site
Contact" to the GOFC Fire Implementation Team.
Letter contains Name and geographical
coordinates for site. Commitment to produce
high resolution fire and burn scar reference data
sets. Description of field data to be
collected. Request for high spatial resolution
imagery listing locations (e.g. Landsat
path/rows) and time period for collection.
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December 2001 White Paper Defines Site Contact
Responsible for generating letter and
coordinating cal/val activities, including access
to baseline data, ground truth, remote sensing
products and results. GOFC Fire Sites
Coordinator Resposible for maintaing and
updating the list of participating sites,
requests for satellite imagery, and site
activities. LPV Satellite Data Coordinator
Submits and tracks requests for high spatial
resolution image acquisitions and distribution to
participants. Coordinates access to satellite
fire and burns scar data from global suppliers.
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Importance of Accuracy Assessment for Fire and
Burn Scar Products Documenting the detection
limits for various sensors. Understanding the
errors for each sensor. Improving the
algorithms. Developing confidence in the use of
the data. Developing calibrations for more
accurate input into models. Others.....
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ASTER
MODIS
Active Fire Validation