EOS Validation Program

Institution: USDA Forest Service, Intermountain Fire Sciences Laboratory
Phone: (406) 329-4838
E-mail: whao@fs.fed.us

Darold Ward, dward/rmrs_missoula@fs.fed.us

January 2002

We propose to validate the following products from the MODIS instrument of the EOS satellite: (1) The temporal and spatial distribution of active fires and the chronology of fire scar growth, (2) the heat released and approximate radiative energy produced as a function of time, and (3) the chronological change in the proportion of biomass burned in flaming and smoldering combustion. We will validate the ground level CO concentrations and the total column CO and CH4 concentrations detected by the MOPITT instrument and the types and size distributions of aerosols detected by the MODIS and MISR instruments of the AM-1 satellite in regions having extensive biomass burning. The location of fire and the size of burn scars determined from the MODIS instrument will be compared with those from the ground surveys done by Federal land managers. We will conduct at least 10 large-scale biomass burning experiments in forest and savanna ecosystems during the time of satellite overpass in the Columbia River Basin of the western USA and the Western Province of Zambia. The rate of heat release for each fire will be compared with the radiative energy measured using the MODIS instrument. The proportion of biomass burned in flaming and smoldering combustion for each fire will be derived be measuring the fluxes of CO2, CO, CH4, other hydrocarbons, and aerosols from a King Air or Cessna aircraft over the duration of the fires being studied. The airborne measurements of flight scattering and light absorption, and the size distribution of aerosols will be used to validate the same measurements from the MODIS and MISR instruments. The results of the ground survey in CRB by the Forest Service and the large scale ground and airborne experiments in the same region and in the western Zambia should provide comprehensive validation of the products of fires, trace gases, and aerosols monitored from the EOS AM-1 Satellite.