Enrico Cadau

Continuous Monitoring of Forest Fires in the Mediterranean Area Using MSG

Fires represent one of the main factors of degradation and destruction of the Mediterranean forest heritage. According to fire-fighting agencies, a satellite-based fire-detection system can be considered operationally useful for Mediterranean countries when fires with a minimum extent of 1500 m2 can be detected with a temporal resolution of 30 min. In fact, such a system should be able to detect fires at their first stage when it is possible to extinguish them more easily. The Centro di Ricerca Progetto San Marco has been analyzing for several years the possibility of using images acquired by the Spinning Enhanced Visible and Infrared Imager sensor onboard the geostationary satellite Meteosat Second Generation for this purpose. A new processing approach exploiting the increase in both spatial and temporal resolution (15 min) with respect to previous meteosat systems is described in this paper. The idea is based on the use of a change-detection technique to maximize the detection capabilities of the system in spite of its limited spatial resolution. This technique consists of comparing two or more images acquired at 15-min intervals, for which any temperature change can be attributed to fast dynamic phenomena, such as fires, when natural changes are modeled and removed. An assessment of the performances of this algorithm is carried out comparing its results with the report made available by Italian fire-fighting agencies and with fire products based on higher resolution sensors such as the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer

SEVIRI Onboard Meteosat Second Generation, and the Quantitative Monitoring of Effusive Volcanoes in Europe and Africa

The spectral and radiometric performance of payload SEVIRI onboard the geostationary platform MSG-2, make its data particularly well suited not only to the detection of the onset of volcanic activity, but also to the measurement of thermal radiant fluxes and eruption rates. Thorough testing was carried out on two volcanoes - Stromboli (Aeolian Islands, Southern Italy) and Piton de la Fournaise (Reunion Island, northwestern Indian Ocean) - that mostly give rise to short-lived lava flows. Aimed to comply with the outstandingly high acquisition rate, we developed an ad-hoc code to automatically detect volcanic hot-spots, measure radiant fluxes, and derive lava volume effusion rates within the 15-minute interval between two SEVIRI data streams.

Improved MSG-SEVIRI Images Cloud Masking and Evaluation of its Impact on the Fire Detection Methods

One of the most important factors responsible of the fire-detection algorithms fail is represented by the inaccurate cloud detection methods. In fact, the cloud-contaminated pixels are often associated with false fire pixel because of the brightness temperature increase in the mid-infrared channel. On the other hand an incorrect cloud masking could hide a real fire pixel, especially at the borders of clouds. Together with the SEVIRI images EUMETSAT provides its own cloud mask (CLM product). This mask is computed by making full use of the MSG-SEVIRI spectral channels. Among the 12 channels, only channels 8 (IR 9.7) and 12 (HRV) are not included in the cloud detection and analysis. Due to the particular application for which CRPSM is using SEVIRI images, detection of fire at its early stage (sizes lower than 0.1 ha), a high sensitivity to changes in the radiance measured by the sensor in channel 4 (3.9 iquestm) is required. Since the presence of a cloud covering only a fraction of the pixel (~4 times 4 km at mid latitude) can produce an increase in the estimated brightness temperature, in such channel, capable to provoke a false alarm we decided to use also channel 12 in the cloud detection algorithm. Thus, in order to improve the cloud masks provided by EUMETSAT a new methodology has been introduced. The approach is firstly based on the application of the HRV channel during daytime.

Assessment of the Fire Detection Limit using SEVIRI/MSG Sensor

Forest fires represent the main cause of forest degradation in Italy and in the Mediterranean area countries. This phenomenon, progressively increasing, reached an average of 11000 fires per year in the period 1990-2000 with the destruction of 553,000 ha of vegetated areas in the Italian peninsula. It has high relevance also for other countries in the region such as Spain, Portugal, Greece, France. Damages caused by forest fires have a direct economic impact related to the cost of burned wood, and the cost of the activities of prevention, fire- fighting and recover of burned areas. Less easy is the estimate of the economic impact of forest loss as part of the eco-system (reduction of the hydro-geological defenses, spoiling of tourist and landscape attractions, etc.). An efficient way to manage this problem involves an observation system able to provide a prompt detection and monitoring of fires and a synoptic view of the area of interest. Thus, satellites seem to be the ideal instrument for this purpose, even if the temporal frequency of the observations is generally still a problem. In several previous paper the capability of setting up an early fire detection system using the sensor SEVIRI (Spinning Enhanced Visible and Infrared Imager) on board of the geostationary satellite MSG (Meteosat Second Generation) has been demonstrated. The present paper aims at assessing the limits of the SEVIRI sensor in detecting fires taking into account the spatial resolution of this sensor and the new algorithms especially developed to exploit its temporal resolution characteristics. The assessment of the limits of this sensor performances will be obtained mainly comparing its results with those obtainable from higher resolution sun- synchronous sensor data (MODIS and ASTER).

SIMDEO: An integrated system for landfill detection and monitoring using EO data

The monitoring of landfills and the detection of illegal and uncontrolled dump sites is a central environmental issue in all developed countries and a critical problem particularly in the southern regions of Italy. The consequences of the persisting uncontrolled disposal of wastes are now manifest after the occurrence of numerous critical emergencies (e.g. Naples 2009 and 2010). Furthermore, the strong infiltration of mafia-type criminal organizations in the legal process of waste disposal has led to even more critical conditions. The number of illegal landfills in Italy is constantly increasing; the last estimate made in 2010 has listed more than 5000 not authorized contaminated areas covering 2000 hectares of surface but there is the suspicion that these figures are strongly underestimated. Very recently Italy has been also threatened by the European Commission with €56m fine for having violated the landfill directives in not following the appropriate waste treatment. This work aims at presenting a new synergic approach based on EO optical and SAR data for detecting illegal landfills and monitoring existing and known waste disposal sites.

Continuous monitoring of forest fires in the Mediterranean area using MSG

Fires represent one of the main factors of degrada- tion and destruction of the Mediterranean forest heritage. Ac- cording to fire-fighting agencies, a satellite-based fire-detection system can be considered operationally useful for Mediterranean countries when fires with a minimum extent of 1500 m 2 can be detected with a temporal resolution of 30 min. In fact, such a system should be able to detect fires at their first stage when it is possible to extinguish them more easily. The Centro di Ricerca Progetto San Marco has been analyzing for several years the possi- bility of using images acquired by the Spinning Enhanced Visible and Infrared Imager sensor onboard the geostationary satellite Meteosat Second Generation for this purpose. A new processing approach exploiting the increase in both spatial and temporal resolution (15 min) with respect to previous meteosat systems is described in this paper. The idea is based on the use of a change- detection technique to maximize the detection capabilities of the system in spite of its limited spatial resolution. This technique consists of comparing two or more images acquired at 15-min intervals, for which any temperature change can be attributed to fast dynamic phenomena, such as fires, when natural changes are modeled and removed. An assessment of the performances of this algorithm is carried out comparing its results with the reportmadeavailablebyItalianfire-fightingagenciesandwithfire products based on higher resolution sensors such as the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer.

Estimation of the burned biomass based on the quasi-continuous MSG/SEVIRI earth observation system

The estimate of the burned biomass starts from the computation of the FRP (Fire Radiative Power) that is the radiative power released by the fire. By integrating this quantity in the time it is possible to estimate the FRE (Fire Radiative Energy) and the burned biomass, if coefficients providing the burning efficiency of the vegetation interested by the fire are available. The FRP has been estimated by following three different approaches: the method proposed for the MODIS sensor, based on the eighth power of the brightness temperature of the fired pixel times a suitable coefficient; or by using the hypothesis that the fire size and its burning temperature can be computed by means of the Dozier approach and estimating the FRP by using the Stefan-Bolzmann relationship; or avoiding the computation of the brightness temperature of the fired pixel, by using the approach proposed by Wooster, in which the spatial resolution of the satellite image and the fired pixel emitted radiance are considered. Due to the high temporal frequency of the SEVIRI observations, the integration with the time of the FRP (computed every 15 min) can be carried out allowing to estimate the total energy released by the fire (FRE) and possibly the amount of burned biomass (BB). The paper aims at analyzing the suitability of this approach by focusing on the Sardinia region (Italy). The availability of the sizes of burned areas, provided by the Corpo Forestale e di Vigilanza Ambientale of the Sardinia region, allows to check the significance of the retrieved BB value.

Application of Mathematical Morphology to automatically extract roads on radar images

The new constellation of remote sensing satellite COSMO/SkyMed will guarantee a combination of spatial and temporal resolution never reached by previously systems. The full exploitation of this system can allow the development of new applications, like these aiming at providing insight into the magnitude of a disaster and a detailed assessment of the damages as required by first responders for planning relief actions.