Fire risk estimation at different scales of observations: An overview of satellite based methods

Abstract

Since the mid-1980 s satellite remote sensing data have been used in forest fire monitoring for applications related to the diverse phases of fire management as, fire prevention, danger estimation, detection of active fires, estimation of fire effects (burned area mapping, fire severity estimation, smoke plumes, biomass losses, etc), post fire recovery, fire regime characterization, etc. Today satellite technologies can fruitfully support both research and operational activities for fire monitoring and management at different temporal and spatial scales and with cost effective tools. This paper provides a short overview of satellite remote sensing for forest fire danger estimation at different scale of observations.