Vast and disastrous fires occurred on Borneo during the 2015 dry season, pushing Indonesia into the top five carbon emitting countries. The region was affected by a very strong El Niño-Southern Oscillation (ENSO) climate phenomenon, on par with the last severe event in 1997/98. Fire dynamics in Central Kalimantan were investigated using an innovative sensor offering higher sensitivity to a wider range of fire intensities at a finer spatial resolution (160 m) than heretofore available. The sensor is onboard the TET-1 satellite, part of the German Aerospace Center (DLR) FireBird mission. TET-1 images (acquired every 2–3 days) from the middle infrared were used to detect fires continuously burning for almost three weeks in the protected peatlands of Sebangau National Park as well as surrounding areas with active logging and oil palm concessions. TET-1 detection capabilities were compared with MODIS active fire detection and Landsat burned area algorithms. Fire dynamics, including fire front propagation speed and area burned, were investigated. We show that TET-1 has improved detection capabilities over MODIS in monitoring low-intensity peatland fire fronts through thick smoke and haze. Analysis of fire dynamics revealed that the largest burned areas resulted from fire front lines started from multiple locations, and the highest propagation speeds were in excess of 500 m/day (all over peat > 2m deep). Fires were found to occur most often in concessions that contained drainage infrastructure but were not cleared prior to the fire season. Benefits of implementing this sensor system to improve current fire management techniques are discussed. Near real-time fire detection together with enhanced fire behavior monitoring capabilities would not only improve firefighting efforts, but also benefit analysis of fire impact on tropical peatlands, greenhouse gas emission estimations as well as mitigation measures to reduce severe fire events in the future.

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ABSTRACT:More than 10 years after the launch of DLR's first small satellite BIRD, a follow on project called FireBird was started. Based on the success of the BIRD mission, the main scientific goal-the investigation of high temperature events and their impact on the climatic processes-will be continued but in consideration to the advantages given by the operation of a constellation of two small satellites. The first of these satellites-TET-1-was launched on June 22nd 2012. The launch of the second satellite-BIROS-is scheduled for spring 2016. Both satellites are mainly dedicated to the observation and analysis of high temperature events such as wildfires and volcanoes. The outstanding feature of the FireBird Infrared Instruments is their higher ground sample resolution and dynamic range compared to systems such as MODIS. This enables the detection of smaller fire events and improves the quality of the quantitative analysis. The analysis of the high temperature events is based on the Bi-Spectral Method, which requires also an excellent characterization of the background temperatures. With this the FireBird Infrared Instruments are also suitable to study phenomena with lower temperatures. Following the experience of BIRD, the design of the camera system in the visible bands was changed and with this altering the characteristics of the Bi-Spectral Method. These changes were validated in several experiments and the results will be discussed in this paper. To overcome some restrictions of the small satellite technology, advanced on board processing will be implemented on the FireBird satellites. By implementing the Bi-Spectral Method on board, it is possible to reduce the data stream to a dedicated list of detected high temperature events containing the parameter analyzed. This allows more efficient management of the on board memory and of the downlink capabilities considering also the demand to download selected image data.

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