NASA UNVEILS NEW INTERNET SITE FOR FIRE MONITORING BY SATELLITE

-- David E. Steitz, Headquarters, Washington, DC. (Phone: 202/358-1730)
-- Lynn Chandler, Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, MD. (Phone: 301/286-9016)

In an effort to provide up-to-date information about current fire situations around the globe to the public and scientific communities, NASA today unveiled a new presence on the World Wide Web that provides an up-to-date synopsis of current information about fires and their effect on global climate change. This web site features revealing animation depicting wildfires across the globe.

The new Web site at URL http://modarch.gsfc.nasa.gov/fire_atlas/fires.html provides recent imagery, analysis of data from the early and mid-1990s, and a synthesis of a range of satellite information resources that are currently available about terrestrial fires and future global fire monitoring capabilities. The Web site draws upon satellite resources from several U.S. agencies and international partners and is intended to serve the needs of the scientific community and the general public.

The recent fires in Mexico and Brazil, and last summer's fires in Indonesia, have heightened public awareness of the importance of natural and human-induced wildfire as a contributor both to regional pollution and global change. Nearly 175 million acres of forest and grasslands are burned each year worldwide. Using data from satellite sensors, aircraft, and ground-based initiatives, scientists are working to develop a new global fire-monitoring program that will enable them to better understand the many implications of this growing problem.

Specifically, efforts are underway to quantify the total area of forests and grasslands burned each year and to more accurately estimate the amount of resulting emission products. These newer and better data will facilitate development of more robust computer models that will enhance scientists' abilities to predict how biomass burning will impact climate, the environment and air quality.

Since no single satellite or instrument provides optimal characteristics for fire monitoring, data are currently used from several satellite systems. Each system has different capabilities in terms of spatial resolution, sensitivity/saturation level, spectral frequency, overpass time and repeat frequency.

Among the agencies and programs represented on this web page are:

1. The International Geosphere Biosphere Program using Advanced Very High Resolution Radiometer (AVHRR) data for 1992/3 from international ground stations.

2. The NOAA-National Geophysical Data Center global fire database for 1994/5 using U.S. Air Force Defense Meteorological Satellite Program - Operational Linescan System data.

3. A near real-time multi-source fire monitoring system being developed for the U.S. to support the Interagency Fire Center in Boise, ID.

4. A near real-time multi-source active fire monitoring system currently being developed at NOAA-National Geophysical Data Center in Boulder, CO, for the current burning season as part of its Significant Event Imagery activity.

5. Satellite fire-monitoring systems from Brazil, Russia and Senegal using the countries' own regional AVHRR systems.

6. Regional examples of trace gas and particulate emissions from fires in Brazil, Southern Africa and Alaska provided by various research groups.

7. Field and aircraft measurements of fires and emissions for satellite data validation as well as new sensing systems and algorithms being developed by various research groups.