Ajl. Harris, TOWARDS AUTOMATED FIRE MONITORING FROM SPACE - SEMIAUTOMATED MAPPING OF THE JANUARY 1994 NEW-SOUTH-WALES WILDFIRES USING AVHRR DATA, International journal of wildland fire, 6(3), 1996, pp. 107-116
The Advanced Very High Resolution Radiometer (AVHRR) is capable of pro
viding low cost thermal data in which wild-fires can easily be detecte
d. Data are available for large areas (similar to 3000 x 6000 km) at-l
east 4 times a day, and can be received directly by the user. An autom
ated hot-spot detection technique inserted into the data stream could
therefore provide timely fire information for wild-fire monitoring. Su
ch an automated technique is applied to AVHRR data acquired for the wi
ld-fires which burnt extensive areas in New South Wales, Australia, du
ring January 1994. The technique allows rapid production of fire maps.
These revealed a number of major fires burning mainly within the Nati
onal Parks, impacting on settlements and roads. Such a synoptic view o
f these fire events would be difficult to obtain using any other means
.