Utility of Commercial Satellite Shortwave Infrared Multispectral Imagery for Precise Geo-location of Active Wildfires Through Heavy Smoke Clouds over the California Camp Fire

Abstract

The California Camp Fire, which began on November 8, 2018, is California’s deadliest fire to date. Largely a result of extremely dry fuel and weather conditions, extensive drought, and directional winds, the fire killed 85 people in Butte County and the town of Paradise. As I aimed to apply remote sensing to the enhancement and expedition of wildfire detection, this research specifically investigates the implementation of commercial satellite shortwave infrared (SWIR) multispectral imagery (MSI) for precise geo-location of active wildfires through heavy smoke clouds over these areas of California. Utilizing Environment for Visualizing Images (ENVI) analysis software and data collected by DigitalGlobe’s WorldView-3 satellite, which has an 8-band SWIR MSI sensor with a peak spatial resolution of 3.7 meters, I was able to identify the exact locations of the wildfires and track their movement through the dense smoke from November 15 to November 20. Particularly, I derived class images based on areas termed regions of interest (ROIs) where the detected radiance of Band 8, the longest wavelength band, was over 500 mW/cm 2 -sr-nm, a minimum threshold determined by analysis of a SWIR Band 8 radiance histogram. I further employed ArcMap of ArcGIS to provide geospatial registering of the data, displaying both the WorldView-3 SWIR MSI false-color with RGB from Band 8, Band 2, and Band 1, respectively, and the accompanying class images of wildfire regions. Additionally, I affirmed that Band 8 is the optimal SWIR MSI band for detection due to its greatest sensitivity, or the ratio of intensity of the fire and non-fire pixels, in comparison to the other bands. Ultimately, this research illuminated the significance of SWIR MSI for high-accuracy detection of wildfires through smoke in the context of the California Camp Fire. Such results may have global implications, enabling officials and emergency response teams to rapidly determine the extent of a wildfire. As such, future work could involve implementing a plan in fire-prone regions to incorporate satellite SWIR MSI through communicating with local departments, thus contributing to the improvement of safety worldwide.