Rapid estimation of CO2 emissions from forest fire events using cloud-based computation of google earth engine.

Abstract

One of the main sources of greenhouse gases is forest fire, with carbon dioxide as its main constituent. With increasing global surface temperatures, the probability of forest fire events also increases. A method that enables rapid quantification of emissions is even more necessary to estimate the environmental impact. This study introduces the application of the Google Earth Engine platform to monitor burned areas in forest fire events in Mount Arjuno, Indonesia, during the 2016-2019 period, using Landsat-8 and Sentinel-2 satellite imageries. The events particularly affected grassland and tropical forest areas, as well as a fraction of agricultural areas, with a total estimated emission of 2.5 × 103 tCO2/km2 burned area. Higher carbon dioxide emissions were also observed, consistent with the higher local surface temperature as well as the CO total column mixing ratio average retrieved from Sentinel-5 p Tropospheric Monitoring Instrument during the period of analysis.