Fire Danger Observed from Space

Abstract

Biomass burning is one of the critical components of the Earth system, significantly affecting atmospheric emissions and carbon budgets. Fires occurring in the interface between wildland and urban areas also have important socioeconomic effects, affecting people’s lives and resources. Even though fires are natural in many ecosystems, climate and societal changes have recently caused particularly severe fire seasons (Australia, California, Amazonia, Portugal…). Mitigating the negative impacts of fire requires further efforts to assess fire danger conditions. Satellite Earth observation provides considerable capabilities to evaluate the different variables involved in fire danger. Data obtained from remote sensors offer information on possible sources of fire ignition, on fuel status and abundance, and on the topography and the meteorological conditions that will affect fire spread. Satellite observations also provide near-real-time information on fire occurrence for early response teams. This article describes the different variables affecting fire danger and illustrates how satellite data can offer useful information to estimate these variables, focusing on global and continental fire danger systems.