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India records lowest number of wildfires since 2020

Hunter BasslerAugust 1, 2024WildfireIndia, NOAA, satellite1 Comment

The Forest Service of India (FSI) recently reported a record-low number of wildfires in the country this year.

The country’s Ministry of Environment, Forest, and Climate Change (MoEFCC) said a total of 203,544 forest fires burned in the country between November 2023 and June 2024, the lowest number of wildfires in the same period over the past four years. The ministry made the announcement at a recent session of Parliament.

“Forest fires in India are detected using satellite-based sensors called the SNPP-VIIRS (Suomi-National Polar-orbiting Partnership – Visible Infrared Imaging Radiometer Suite),” according to The Print. “Along with that, the FSI also has a monitoring and alert system in place that sends SMSes and emails to registered users in the event of a fire.”

Past numbers mark a steady decline from a historic high wildfire total of 345,989 between November 2020 and June 2021. The ministry also released state-by-state data, which showed Uttarakhand to have the highest number of wildfires this year at 21,033 — followed by Odisha at 20,973.

MoEFCC attributed the declining wildfire totals to India’s National Disaster Management Authority’s training of three disaster relief battalions to specifically deal with forest fires. There are 150 people spread across the three teams’ locations who are sent to fight forest fires.

The country’s government earlier faced criticism from experts regarding its wildfire response and its attempt to pivot blame away from systemic issues and solely toward forest duff and pine litter.

MoEFCC did not cite estimates on the loss of forest or wildlife caused by wildfires in the country, data that has been previously asked for by experts.

Researchers at the Indian Institute of Technology Delhi published a study in 2023 outlining how climate change will negatively affect future fire weather danger in Indian forests. The study projected then that India would see a 60 percent increase in fire weather danger in dry forests with a 40 percent reduction in humid forests. The fire season is also estimated to be longer (by 3 to 61 days) across the country and pre-monsoon fire season is predicted to become more intense in over 55 percent of forests. The study’s findings led researchers to call specifically for changes in how wildfires are tracked and fought at the regional level.

“India is a known biodiversity hotspot, and this biodiversity is affected by forest fires that play a critical role in ecosystem dynamics,” researchers said. “This study clearly demonstrates that there is considerable heterogeneity in the fire danger between and even within forest zones. Hence, a national uniform threshold for fire danger is not advisable. Fire management and mitigation policies must be based on local-regional level metrics.”

Satellite photo, wildfires in the Northwest, July 29, 2021

Bill GabbertJuly 29, 2021July 31, 2021WildfireBritish Columbia, Canada, Idaho, Montana, satellite, Washington4 Comments

Satellite photo smoke wildfire — Satellite photo 7:10 p.m. PDT July 29, 2021

The wildfires in Southeast British Columbia, Northern Washington, Northern Idaho, and Northwest Montana were putting up a lot of smoke Thursday at 7:10 p.m. PDT. NASA GOES 17.

NOAA satellites zoom in on wildfires

BillJune 17, 2021Uncategorizedsatellite4 Comments

By NOAA

Fire weather is heating up across the western United States, exacerbated by an intense heatwave and ongoing severe drought. NOAA satellites are monitoring numerous wildfires and keeping watch on areas primed for ignition. As of June 17, 2021, 33 large fires are currently active, burning more than 400,000 acres in 10 states. More than one million acres have burned across the country so far in 2021.

NOAA satellites zoomed in on several of the major fires burning in the western U.S, including the Telegraph and Mescal Fires in southeastern Arizona, Pack Creek and Bear Fires in Utah, and the Robertson Draw Fire in Montana.

GOES-16 (GOES East) and GOES-17 (GOES West) are monitoring these fires in near-real time. Flying in geostationary orbit, they keep constant watch over the same area, and help to locate fires, detect changes in fire behavior, and predict their motion. They also provide important information about the size, temperature, and intensity of fires that would otherwise be unavailable.

Fire temperature imagery from geostationary satellites is particularly useful to identify new hot spots and the direction those hot spots are moving, especially for fast-growing or newly-formed fires. Specialized imagery that combines data from multiple channels on the satellites’ Advanced Baseline Imager (ABI) instrument, allows both a fire’s hot spot and associated smoke plume to be visualized.

Satellite imagery of several of the fires, including the Pack Creek and Bear Fires in Utah and the Telegraph Fire in Arizona, reveal impressive plumes with thick pyrocumulus clouds, which form when there is enough moisture and atmospheric instability over an intense heat source and smoke.

JPSS satellites feed the HRRR-smoke model, the first weather forecast model in the U.S. to monitor wildfire smoke. The model relies on multiple satellite measurements, such as heat energy, wind speed, rainfall and atmospheric temperature, and combines these data with vegetation maps. The combined data is mapped to a three-dimensional grid that provides information on surface level smoke, and smoke high in the atmosphere. The model also produces a forecast with detailed updates on the height of the smoke plume, the amount of smoke produced and the direction it’s expected to move.

The HRRR-smoke model from June 15, for example, shows smoke from the fires in Arizona and Utah moving north and east across the country.

The benefits provided by the latest generation of NOAA satellites aren’t just seen during a fire but are important in monitoring the entire life cycle of a fire disaster. Data from the satellites are helping forecasters monitor drought conditions, locate hot spots, detect changes in a fire’s behavior, predict a fire’s motion, monitor smoke and air quality, and monitor the post-fire landscape like never before.

Timely satellite imagery is critical, potentially life-saving information in a dynamic fire environment. In the past, incident meteorologists had a single low-resolution image that updated every 15 minutes — typically the image was already 20 minutes old when it arrived at the forecaster. Now, GOES-16 and GOES-17 frequently detect fires before they are spotted on the ground – as early as 10 to 15 minutes before emergency notifications to 911.

NASA offering online training for satellite observations of wildfires

Bill GabbertApril 22, 2021UncategorizedInfrared, NASA, remote sensing, satellite, training

Fire risk, detection, and analysis

Brock Blevins, the Training Coordinator for the NASA Applied Remote Sensing Training Program (ARSET) asked that we pass along an online training opportunity.

NASA’s ARSET will be offering a new online webinar series: Satellite Observations and Tools for Fire Risk, Detection, and Analysis.

The six-part training in English and Spanish will cover how remote sensing and Earth observations can be used to monitor conditions before, during and after fires. Topics covered will include weather and climate conditions, fuel characterization, fire risk, smoke detection, monitoring, forecasting, fire behavior, and post-fire landscapes. This intermediate-level training will provide lectures and case studies focused on the use of Earth observations for operational fire monitoring.

Course Dates in 2021: May 11, 13, 18, 20, 25, 27.

Times and Registration Information:

English Session: 11:00-13:00 EDT (UTC-4): https://go.nasa.gov/3mak1DS
Spanish Session: 15:00-17:00 EDT (UTC-4): https://go.nasa.gov/3wfzlUf

Learning Objectives: By the end of this training attendees will understand:

Terminology regarding type and components of fire (pre, during, post)
Climatic and biophysical conditions pre-, during-, and post-fire
The satellites and instruments used in conducting fire science
The applications of passive and active remote sensing for fires
How to visualize fire emissions and particulate matter
The use of tools for active fires, emissions, and burned areas
How to acquire data for conducting analysis in a given study area

Agenda: http://appliedsciences.nasa.gov/sites/default/files/2021-03/Wildfires_Agenda_0.pdf

Audience: This training is primarily intended for local, regional, state, federal, and international organizations involved in resource and ecosystem management, health and air quality, disaster risk management, disaster response, and those with an interest in applying remote sensing to fire science.

Course Format: Six, 2-hour Parts

Canada may launch satellite to monitor wildfires

Bill GabbertMay 1, 2019April 30, 2019UncategorizedCanada, satellite1 Comment

The Canadian Space Agency is considering launching a satellite that would monitor wildfires. The “WildFireSat” (WFS) would not detect them, but would monitor fire characteristics and emissions in support of international requirements for carbon reporting. The satellite would help to determine which sensors and frequency bands are most useful. Eventually this could develop into a constellation of satellites providing real-time coverage of wildfires not only in Canada but across the planet.

Below is an excerpt from the Notice of Proposed Procurement:

…It should be emphasized that WFS represents a wildfire monitoring capability and not a wildfire detection capability. A key mission objective of WFS is to monitor accurately the radiated power from wildfires to infer their characteristics and be able to improve fire management practices and report on carbon emission. The mission would confirm that the current selection of frequency bands and algorithms is adequate to retrieve fire characteristics with the desired accuracy.

As such, the WFS mission will serve as a stepping stone to accomplish the long-term objective of establishing a new, potentially commercial, fully operational 24/7 service in the future. WFS could help prepare the user community in Canada and possibly abroad, and thus create the customer-base that would be needed for a future global operational data service to be commercially viable.

NWS develops system for quickly notifying land managers when satellites detect wildfires

Bill GabbertApril 30, 2019Uncategorizedsatellite, weather1 Comment

The NWS may one day issue watches and warnings based on the predicted spread of a dangerous wildfire.

The higher resolution and shorter time intervals between images on the more recently launched weather satellites has made it a reality for wildfires to be detected and local land managers notified within minutes.

The new GOES 16 and GOES 17 satellites can identify new wildfire ignitions more accurately than their predecessors. The higher resolution means the location can sometimes be pinned down to within less than a miles as long as the temperature reaches the threshold that triggers the software to paint it in the image.

For a while the National Weather Service had occasionally notified land managers when they detected a wildfire but in 2016 as numerous blazes erupted in Oklahoma and Kansas the Oklahoma Forestry Services Fire Management Chief specifically asked for help to identify new fire starts. In an April 30, 2019 presentation transmitted remotely to the International Association of Wildland Fire’s Fire Behavior and Fuels Conference in Albuquerque, T. Todd Lindley, Science and Operations Officer with the NWS, said that considering the fire storms brewing in the area on that day in 2016 that someone on their staff determined that, “We need to innovate today”.

detect wildfires satellite notify fire department — Cell phone photo of a slide from T. Todd Lindley’s remotely transmitted presentation April 30, 2019.

Within about four hours, Mr. Lindley said, they had developed a computer program that could enable a forecaster to send a notification to a land manager about a new fire very quickly, with just a few mouse clicks.

They have had success with the system, with 83 percent of notifications being received prior to local 911 calls.

And branching off of their ability to predict the tracks of thunderstorms and tornados and issuing watches and warnings, the NWS is experimenting with identifying the projected spread of a fire which could possibly lead to issuing watch and warning areas for wildfires.

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