Airborne infrared observations and analyses of a large forest fire

Stearns, John R.; Zahniser, M. S.; Kolb, C. E.; Sandford, B. P.

doi:10.1364/ao.25.002554

Cited by 19 publications

(5 citation statements)

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“…However, McMillan et al [1996] demonstrate boundary layer enhancements due to biomass burning plumes are observed readily by remote sensing thermal emission spectra. This technique for CO remote sensing in the vicinity of fires is significantly different from that used by Stearns et al [1986] in which the hot fire itself was used as a source.…”

Section: Co Retrieval Algorithmmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Previous airborne FTIR remote sensing observations have been made of CO on a continental scale revealing synoptic controls on transport [ McMillan et al , 1997], of CO from forest fires [ Stearns et al , 1986; Worden et al , 1997], and in forest fire smoke plumes [ McMillan et al , 1996; Worden et al , 1997]. However, none of these studies occurred as part of an international effort to study as large and important an ecosystem as southern Africa.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Tropospheric carbon monoxide measurements from the Scanning High‐Resolution Interferometer Sounder on 7 September 2000 in southern Africa during SAFARI 2000

et al. 2003

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Retrieved tropospheric carbon monoxide (CO) column densities are presented for more than 9000 spectra obtained by the University of Wisconsin‐Madison (UWis) Scanning High‐Resolution Interferometer Sounder (SHIS) during a flight on the NASA ER‐2 on 7 September 2000 as part of the Southern African Regional Science Initiative (SAFARI 2000) dry season field campaign. Enhancements in tropospheric column CO were detected in the vicinity of a controlled biomass burn in the Timbavati Game Reserve in northeastern South Africa and over the edge of the river of smoke in south central Mozambique. Relatively clean air was observed over the far southern coast of Mozambique. Quantitative comparisons are presented with in situ measurements from five different instruments flying on two other aircraft: the University of Washington Convair‐580 (CV) and the South African Aerocommander JRB in the vicinity of the Timbavati fire. Measured tropospheric CO columns (extrapolated from 337 to 100 mb) of 2.1 × 1018 cm−2 in background air and up to 1.5 × 1019 cm−2 in the smoke plume agree well with SHIS retrieved tropospheric CO columns of (2.3 ± 0.25) × 1018 cm−2 over background air near the fire and (1.5 ± 0.35) × 1019 cm−2 over the smoke plume. Qualitative comparisons are presented with three other in situ CO profiles obtained by the South African JRA aircraft over Mozambique and northern South Africa showing the influence of the river of smoke.

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Section: Co Retrieval Algorithmmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Tropospheric carbon monoxide measurements from the Scanning High‐Resolution Interferometer Sounder on 7 September 2000 in southern Africa during SAFARI 2000

et al. 2003

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“…DOAS, IR spectroscopy, or LIDAR are the typical techniques used in aircraft remote sensing applications. 67,68 Current aircraft remote sensing is largely limited to NO x and SO 2 fluxes using DOAS and organic species from biomass burning using IR spectroscopy. Even so, aircraft measurements of this type are particularly useful in determining pollutant fluxes from spatially extended area sources, such as forest fires and total emissions from an urban area.…”

Section: Future Directions and Trends In Inventory Developmentmentioning

confidence: 99%

Air Emission Inventories in North America: A Critical Assessment

Miller

Hidy²,

Hales³

et al. 2006

Journal of the Air & Waste Management Association

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Although emission inventories are the foundation of air quality management and have supported substantial improvements in North American air quality, they have a number of shortcomings that can potentially lead to ineffective air quality management strategies. Major reductions in the largest emissions sources have made accurate inventories of previously minor sources much more important to the understanding and improvement of local air quality. Changes in manufacturing processes, industry types, vehicle technologies, and metropolitan infrastructure are occurring at an increasingly rapid pace, emphasizing the importance of inventories that reflect current conditions. New technologies for measuring source emissions and ambient pollutant concentrations, both at the point of emissions and from remote platforms, are providing novel approaches to collecting data for inventory developers. Advances in information technologies are allowing data to be shared more quickly, more easily, and processed and compared in novel ways that can speed the development of emission inventories. Approaches to improving quantitative measures of inventory uncertainty allow air quality management decisions to take into account the uncertainties associated with emissions estimates, providing more accurate projections of how well alternative strategies may work. This paper discusses applications of these technologies and techniques to improve the accuracy, timeliness, and completeness of emission inventories across North America and outlines a series of eight recommendations aimed at inventory developers and air quality management decision-makers to improve emission inventories and enable them to support effective air quality management decisions for the foreseeable future. INTRODUCTIONAir quality management (AQM) in North America focuses on ensuring that concentrations of compounds in the ambient air are below the levels that are considered harmful to human health or the environment. Strategies developed to achieve these standards are based on reduction of emissions from specific source classes. The effectiveness of this approach depends on an accurate understanding of the relative contributions of the sources to ambient atmospheric pollution. An adequate knowledge of emissions sources and associated fluxes, both before and after emission controls are adopted, has long been recognized as a requirement for designing cost-effective air pollution control strategies. 1 Emission inventories are designed to systematically quantify the temporal and spatial distributions of the fluxes of primary pollutants and secondary pollutant precursors emitted by significant sources. This places emission inventories at the foundation of today's AQM strategies, and significant errors in inventories can, therefore, lead to the adoption of strategies that protect human health and the environment less effectively than possible. Emission inventory errors can be enormously expensive by requiring installation and operation of air pollution controls beyond the ...

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“…In contrast, savannas, with a simpler fuel structure and a lower fuel loading, have more narrow flame fronts and less energy being released per unit area (figure 7b). Field programs (e.g., Alexander, 1998;Brass et al, 1996;Kaufman and Justice, 1994;Sneeuwjagt and Frandsen, 1977;Stearns et al, 1986;Stocks et al, 1996;Stocks and Hartley, 1995;Stocks and Jin, 1988) have generated data that can be used to define fire characteristics in various landscapes. The Only single flame fronts within a footprint have been modeled and the flame fronts are considered to be uniform.…”

Section: Fire Modelingmentioning

confidence: 99%

Wildland Fire Detection from Space: Theory and Application

Cahoon

Alexander

Baum

et al. 2000

Advances in Global Change Research

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New satellite instruments are currently being designed specifically for fire detection, even though to date the detection of active fires from space has never been an integral part of the design of any in-orbit space mission.Rather, the space-based detection of fires during the last two decades has been exploiting measurements obtained for other objectives. The current fire products have proved to be of great benefit and interest, but their usefulness is not fully understood. Part of the confusion about the utility of these measurements stems from the lack of detailed knowledge about the data and its acquisition. The remote sensing research community has spent considerable time and effort trying to rationalize the usefulness of existing satellite imagery for active fire detection. Unfortunately, uncertainties about instrument capabilities pervades much of this research and the true limits of fire detection from space have not been fully evaluated and understood.To analyze the active fire detection capability of any instrument, the flow of energy from the source to the instrument and the instrument's response to that energy must be considered. For this reason, an approach has been developed that models the energy emitted from surface fires, allowing for the fact that fire is itself a variable phenomenon. The energy transmission is then modeled along its path through the atmosphere and through the instrument's optical system. A fundamental concern is in the estimation of the total surface area that emits the energy which defines a single pixel in the image. Unfortunately, most of the fire detection modeling done to date is based on a misconception about the pixel and its actual size. Rather than using the radiometric footprint size, the instantaneousfield-of-view (IFOV) is used to describe the 'resolution' of the instrument. In fact, the radiometric footprint is considerably larger than the IFOV and greatly affects the energy modeling used to estimate the fire detection thresholds of a particular instrument. Based on knowledge of the radiometric footprint, the fire detection capability of AVHRR, DMSP-OLS, and MODIS are reviewed. 2"the pixel, the elementary unit of analysis in remote sensing..., is a delusion which may become a snare for the unwary", P. Fisher (1997).

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Airborne infrared observations and analyses of a large forest fire

Cited by 19 publications

References 10 publications

Tropospheric carbon monoxide measurements from the Scanning High‐Resolution Interferometer Sounder on 7 September 2000 in southern Africa during SAFARI 2000

Tropospheric carbon monoxide measurements from the Scanning High‐Resolution Interferometer Sounder on 7 September 2000 in southern Africa during SAFARI 2000

Air Emission Inventories in North America: A Critical Assessment

Wildland Fire Detection from Space: Theory and Application

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