THE ERS-2 ATSR WORLD FIRE ATLAS

• Background information

The 1997s' Kyoto's Convention revealed to the general public that, industrial and agricultural emissions of carbon dioxide, methane and other Greenhouse gases threaten to change the climate rapidly.

The Baveno Manifesto reflected the European concerns for Global Environement Monitoring by space as a component of the Kyoto Convention implementation. Remote sensing data from the ERS-2 ATSR-2 (Along Track Scanning Radiometer) allows to monitor agricultural fires and wildfires distribution at global scale and in Near Real Time.
 


• Figures and future

The ATSR Fire Atlas contains data covering November 1996 through December 1998 and will cover the whole ERS-2 mission since 1995. The data capture continuity required for long term monitoring will be ensured by the AATSR instrument on-board ENVISAT up to 2005.




• Each year of ATSR Fire Atlas requires the processing of 80,000 images.
• All Hot Spots (including gas flares) with a temperature higher than 312 k at night are precisely localised (better that 1km).
• The ATSR Fire Atlas is currently under validation coordinated by IGBP-DIS.

• Access the ATSR World Fire Atlas

Keywords: ESA European Space Agency - Agence spatiale europeenne, observation de la terre, earth observation, satellite remote sensing, teledetection, geophysique, altimetrie, radar, chimique atmospherique, geophysics, altimetry, radar, atmospheric chemistry