ATSR World Fire Atlas

Remote sensing data from the ERS-2 ATSR-2 (Along Track Scanning Radiometer) are being used to monitor agricultural fire and wildfire distribution at a global scale and in near real time. The ATSR World Fire Atlas is the first multi-year global fire atlas ever developed and it will extend from 1995 (launch of ERS-2) to the present. In addition the continuity of data capture, required for long term monitoring, will be ensured by the AATSR instrument onboard ENVISAT (launched in March 2002) up to 2005.

The ATSR World Fire Atlas is a product of the European Space Agency, European Space Research Institute (ESA/ESRIN). It consists of monthly global fire maps (level 3 product) based ATSR-2 night-time (1995 - 2002) and AATSR night-time (2003 - present) GBT (Gridded Brightness Temperature) data. Two products are available for each year, based on two straightforward algorithms:

Algorithm 1: Hot spot if: 3.7 micrometers > 312 Kelvins (Saturation)
Algorithm 2: Hot spot if: 3.7 micrometers > 308 Kelvins

The ATSR-2 and AATSR fire products are each composed of two files:

(1) A monthly map (GIF format, cylindrical equidistant projection) showing the location of the hot spots; and
(2) A monthly fire location file (ASCII), with 1 line per fire detected. This file provides latitude and longitude of the pixels identified as fire pixels (resolution better than 1 km).

The advantages of ATSR and any known problems are described at [http://dup.esrin.esa.it/ionia/wfa/algorithm.asp].

This long-term and frequently updated fire atlas can be used for land use, forestry, atmospheric chemistry, global climate, and fire management applications. The fire product has been identified by IGBP as an important input for global change analysis.