1. Analysis of satellite imagery to map burned areas in Sub-Saharan Africa CARBOAFRICA conference “Africa and Carbon Cycle: the CarboAfrica project” Accra (Ghana) 25-27 November 2008 Ilaria Palumbo, Heiko Balzter, Kevin Tansey Department of Geography, University of Leicester, UK email: ip53@le.ac.uk

2. Vegetation index (green) and fire dynamics in Africa in the year 2001 seen from satellite. Source: NASA http://landdb1.nascom.nasa.gov/animation/images/Africa_Fire_NDVI_2001.gif Fire activity in Africa

3. derive estimations of fire emissions; information about the extent; information about the temporal occurrence; information about the intensity of burning; Why mapping burned areas?

4. GBA2000 SPOT-VGT images, 1km ; Globscar ATSR-2, 1km ; Globcarbon VGT, (A)ATSR and MERIS, 1km ; L3JRC SPOT-VGT images, 1km - 7 years ; MCD45 MODIS, 500m - since 2002 ; others; Products available

5. global level coverage since the 1990s, 1km spatial resolution; dual view – nadir & forward; possible Aerosol Optical Depth retrieval and correction; the AATSR imagery Can we use AATSR for burned area mapping?

6. run model for the AOD retrieval; derive surface reflectance @1km; use the corrected reflectance for burned area mapping; Processing AATSR data AOD aerosol optical depth

7. TOA, VZA, SZA, lat, lon, cloud flags AATSR data extract parameters LUT cont.LUT oceanLUT urbanLUT dustLUT smoke INVERSION R surf, τ cont, E R surf, τ ocean, ER surf, τ urban, ER surf, τ dust, ER surf, τ smoke, E select Best-fit τ select ‘best’ R surf TOA: Top Of the Atmosphere Processing AATSR data

8. Results corrected surface reflectance 1-10 th July 2003 RGB: 1600, 870, 670 nm

9. Results period 1 st -10 h July 2003 RGB: 1600, 870, 550 nm …and problems

10. Can we use AATSR for burned area mapping? maybe not at continental level… some potentials exist though 

11. corrected surface reflectance 2 nd August 2002 7.51am RGB: 1600, 870, 550 nm AATSR

12. MODIS/ Terra - 500m AATSR - 1km Comparison AATSR/MODIS 2002-08-24 2002-08-2

13. MODIS b urned area product MODIS vs AATSR higher spatial resolution (500m); better spatial coverage of the study area, limited missing data; validated using ETM+ scenes over southern Africa; information about quality assessment is provided.

14. MODIS MCD45A1 b urned area product MONTHLY BURNED AREA MAPS

15. Use MODIS product for further analysis extract burned area info per vegetation class; derive fire emissions at continental and country level; analysis of the climate-human-fire interactions; MCD45A1 burned areas Globcover

16. Conclusions the aerosol corrected ATSR series reflectance can be used to map burned area at regional level and before year 2000; the improved spatial resolution and more frequent coverage of the MODIS product is better suited to the needs of CARBOAFRICA; a reliable burned area map is needed to derive accurate emissions from fires.

17. thank you !