Assessment of Alaskan Fire Duration Using Modis Fire Products Lucas P. Spaete, Nancy H.F. French, Richard B. Powell

2005 Fire Season

4/18/2005

6/7/2005

7/27/2005

9/15/2005

11/4/2005

4/18/2005 6/7/2005 7/27/2005 9/15/2005 11/4/2005

MODIS End Date

AIC

C E

nd D

ate

2005

2005 Fire Season

4/18/2005

5/8/2005

5/28/2005

6/17/2005

7/7/2005

7/27/2005

8/16/2005

9/5/2005

4/18/05

5/8/05 5/28/05

6/17/05

7/7/05 7/27/05

8/16/05

9/5/05

MODIS Start Date

AIC

C S

tart

Dat

e

2005

2003 Fire Season

5/19/2003

5/29/2003

6/8/2003

6/18/2003

6/28/2003

7/8/2003

7/18/2003

7/28/2003

8/7/2003

8/17/2003

8/27/2003

5/19/03 6/8/03 6/28/03 7/18/03 8/7/03 8/27/03

MODIS Start Date

AIC

C S

tart

Dat

e

2003

Michigan Tech Research Institute, Michigan Technological University, Ann Arbor, Michigan

IntroductionEach year the Alaska Interagency Coordination Center (AICC) actively monitors wildland fires throughout Alaska. At the conclusion of each fire year the AICC compiles the yearly data into fire specific information. Historically this information has proven useful to scientists studying the historical effects of fire but has fallen short when it comes to studying seasonal aspects of fire occurrence i.e. start date, end date and duration of fires. Until recently the AICC was the only source where fire occurrence information could be obtained. Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) satellites AQUA and Terra pass over the same location several times a day capturing information about the landscape with every pass. This increased temporal resolution can be used to look at seasonal aspects of fire occurrence, information that the AICC data fails to capture.

MODIS Rapid Response Fire Data•Detects fires using the fire detection algorithm based on algorithms developed for the AVHRR and TRMM VIRS (Giglio et al.,2003). Was developed for the need of the fire community for MODIS fire data shortly after acquisition to aid in fire management•1 km resolution•Fire Detection Algorithm 4 μm channel > 360K or 4 μm channel >330K and 4 μm channel - 11μm channel > 25K

AICC fire polygons•Vector based fire boundaries•Historical coverage: 1950 – present•Can be linked to Start/End date information for fires starting in 2001

Data Methods

Results

GIS Workflow

Example of a MODIS fire product with classification

MODIS Rapid Response Fire

Data Raster

Raster to Point Data

MODIS Rapid Response Fire

Data Vector

AICC Fire Polygons

Select all points that fall

within fire polygons

MODIS derived start & end date for

each fire

Example of the AICC fire polygons historical coverage. Each year is a different color

High Fire Year

Low Fire Year

MODIS & AICC Start Date Comparisons

MODIS Rapid Response Fire points selected by AICC fire polygons. Earliest fire pixel (highlighted) becomes start date

2003 Fire Season

5/19/2003

6/8/2003

6/28/2003

7/18/2003

8/7/2003

8/27/2003

9/16/2003

10/6/2003

5/19/03 6/8/03 6/28/03 7/18/03 8/7/03 8/27/03 9/16/03 10/6/03

MODIS End Date

AIC

C E

nd D

ate

2003

High Fire Year

Low Fire Year

MODIS & AICC End Date Comparisons

MODIS Duration/Acres burned

0

20

40

60

80

100

120

140

1124

1737

2489

3209

5403

7100

1138

8

1697

6

2119

4

3017

1

5007

9

8212

3

1311

09

1940

15

Acres burned

Du

rati

on

2005

AICC Duration/Acres burned

0

20

40

60

80

100

120

140

1124

1639

2350

3094

3653

6382

8959

1162

1

1697

6

1934

5

2681

0

3567

0

6256

3

1127

06

1544

32

2321

87

Acres burned

Du

rati

on

2005

F=-108 No functional relationship between variablesF=70 a functional relationship between variables

MODIS & AICC Fire Duration by Acres Burned Comparisons

Discussion

Results show that MODIS derived fire data and AICC fire data yield similar start dates but fail to yield similar end dates for all years studied. From these results we can conclude that the end date discrepancies are not determined by the intensity of the fire year i.e. monitoring resources spread to thin, but rather by regulatory and bureaucratic issues i.e. funding timelines, that influence AICC fire data end dates.