Observations of forest fires and of their consequences by moderate resolution satellite imagery combined with European CORINE Land Cover data

Our paper describes an operational application of NOAA-AVHRR satellite imagery in combination with satellite-based land cover data for comprehensive observation and follow-up of 10 000 fire outbreak and of their consequences in Greece during summer 2000. At a first stage, we acquired and processed satellite images on a daily basis and we interpreted them in view to smoke-plume tracking and fire-core detection at national level. Information was acquired eight times per day and derived from all AVHRR spectral channels. At a second stage, we assessed the consequences of the fires by producing burnt-area maps on the basis of multi-annual normalised vegetation indexes using again AVHRR data but this time in combination with the European CORINE Land Cover database (CLC). The derived burnt-area maps compared successfully to the in-situ inventories available for that year. Our results showed burnt area estimates with an accuracy ranging from 88% to 95%, depending on the predominant land-cover type. These results, along with the very low cost and hi-acquisition frequency of AVHRR satellite imagery, suggest that the combination of moderate resolution satellite data with harmonised CLC data can be applied operationally for forest fire and post-fire assessments at national and at pan-European levels.