Ivan Csiszar

National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration | NOAA

Thermal infrared satellite observations of the Earth's surface are widely used to retrieve Land Surface Temperature (LST) and monitor LST changes around the world. Since January 2012, the Visible Infrared Imaging Radiometer Suite (VIIRS) onboard the Suomi National Polar-Orbiting Partnership (S-NPP) has provided daily observations of LST with a spat...

[1] The Visible Infrared Imaging Radiometer Suite (VIIRS) sensor on the Suomi National Polar-orbiting Partnership (S-NPP) satellite incorporates fire-sensitive channels, including a dual-gain high saturation temperature 4 µm channel, enabling active fire detection and characterization. The active fire product, based on the 750m moderate resolution...

[1] The Visible Infrared Imaging Radiometer Suite (VIIRS) instrument was launched in October 2011 as part of the Suomi National Polar-Orbiting Partnership (S-NPP). The VIIRS instrument was designed to improve upon the capabilities of the operational Advanced Very High Resolution Radiometer and provide observation continuity with NASA's Earth Observ...

Thermal infrared satellite observations of the Earth's surface are key components in estimating the surface skin temperature over global land areas. This work presents validation methodologies to estimate the quantitative uncertainty in Land Surface Temperature (LST) product derived from the Visible Infrared Imager Radiometer Suite (VIIRS) onboard...

This chapter provides a brief description of the information resources currently supporting environmental studies of Siberia including key references and points of contact. It describes environmental, hydrological, and meteorological datasets available for Siberia as well as the tools developed to organize and seamlessly deliver these data to the i...

A quantitative method is developed for deriving water fraction from coarse- to medium-resolution satellite data with visible to short-wave infrared (SWIR) channels based on the linear mixture theory. The method uses a SWIR channel (1.64 μm) by assuming that the water-surface-leaving radiance in this channel is insignificant and is thus less affecte...

In this study, we quantify vegetation fire activity in India using the MODerate resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) active fire datasets. We assessed different fire regime attributes, i.e., fire frequency, seasonality, intensity and the type of vegetation burnt in diverse geographical regions. MODIS data from 2002-2010 revealed an average...

The Visible Infrared Imaging Radiometer Suite (VIIRS) is a comprehensive multispectral imager covering the spectral range between 0.4 μm and 12.0 μm. It obtains full global coverage using a ~3000 km swath on a daily basis in 22 spectral bands at nadir spatial resolutions between 0.38 km and 0.76 km. VIIRS was launched on the Suomi National Polar-or...

Sensors on the new generation of US operational environmental satellites will provide measurements suitable for active fire detection and characterization. The NPOESS Preparatory Project (NPP) satellite, launched on October 28, 2011, carries the Visible Infrared Imager Radiometer Suite (VIIRS), which is expected to continue the active fire data rec...

The Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on board the NASA EOS Terra and Aqua satellites was the first sensor on medium-resolution polar orbiting missions with dedicated bands for the detection and characterization of high temperature objects, predominantly actively burning fires. The MODIS active fire data record now extends to ov...

Russian boreal forests are the largest forested zone on Earth and a tremendous pool of organic carbon. Current limited records on forest structure, composition, successional stage and disturbances contribute to large uncertainties in estimates of carbon stocks and fluxes in this zone. Our ability to monitor ongoing changes in forest cover has impro...

The island of Tenerife, Canary Island, Spain, represents a unique set of environmental conditions due to its complex topography, and large variations of climatic conditions and vegetation cover over a relatively small area. Fire occurrence on the island is common as a consequence of favorable meteorological conditions and human activity. Over the p...

This paper summarizes the NASA VIIRS Land Science team's findings to date with respect to the utility of the VIIRS Land and Cryosphere EDRs to meet NASA's science requirements. Based on previous assessments and results from a recent 51-day global test performed by the Land Product Evaluation and Analysis Tool Element (Land PEATE), the NASA VIIRS La...

The NASA MODIS global fire data products are digital maps calculated from Terra and Aqua MODIS data, designed primarily to serve the needs of the emissions modeling community. The algorithms were designed to provide a comprehensive global product, and to perform well over the expected range of fire conditions and scene variability. The goal was to...

The increased thermal signal in the 3.7 µm channel, together with radiometric measurements in the longwave and shortwave channels, enable the detection of thermal anomalies from AVHRR for a wide range of environmental and observing conditions. The AVHRR has been used worldwide for operational fire monitoring and for research purposes since at least...

Spaceborne instruments provide a unique view of global vegetation fire activity many times a day. In this study, we assessed the fire characterization information provided by two major products: the Terra and Aqua MODIS Thermal Anomalies product (MOD14 and MYD14, respectively) and the Wildfire Automated Biomass Burning Algorithm (WF_ABBA) product d...

In this study, we discuss the early characterization of the active fire products derived from NPOESS/VIIRS and GOES-R ABI proxy data generated using ASTER and MODIS L1B input data, respectively. Improvements in spatial resolution of both VIIRS and ABI instruments result in higher probability of detection compared to their predecessors (MODIS and GO...

The overall objective of this project is to produce, validate and distribute a global land surface climate data record (CDR) using a combination of mature and tested algorithms and the best available polar orbiting satellite data from the past to the present (1981-2009), and which will be extendable into the NPOESS era. The data record will consist...

In this study, we used same-day 30-m spatial resolution Landsat-7/ETM+ and Terra/ASTER data to study the short-term development of active fires in the Brazilian Amazon between the overpasses of the two satellites at approximately 10:00 and 10:30 local times, respectively. We analyzed the spatial progression of fire fronts and the temporal changes i...

Goddard Interactive Online Visualization ANd aNalysis Infrastructure (Giovanni) data portal is ready to support NEESPI studies in Northern Eurasia with high quality remote sensing information.

Studies have indicated that land cover and use changes in Northern Eurasia influence global climate system. However, the procedures are not fully understood and it is challenging to understand the interactions between the land changes in this region and the global climate. Having integrated data collections from multiple disciplines are important f...

The remaining natural habitat of the critically endangered Amur tiger (Panthera tigris altaica) and Amur leopard (Panthera pardus orientalis) is a vast, biologically and topographically diverse area in the Russian Far East (RFE). Although wildland fire is a natural component of ecosystem functioning in the RFE, severe or repeated fires frequently r...

Vegetation fires are becoming increasingly important especially in regions where the proximity to urban areas can result in large populations being directly impacted by such events. During emergency situations, accurate fire location data becomes crucial to assess the affected areas as well as to track smoke plumes and delineate evacuation plans. I...

We present an automated fire detection algorithm for the Advanced Spaceborne Thermal Emission and Reflection Radiometer (ASTER) sensor capable of mapping actively burning fires at 30-m spatial resolution. For daytime scenes, our approach uses near infrared and short-wave infrared reflectance imagery. For nighttime scenes a simple short wave infrare...

In this study we implemented a comprehensive analysis to validate the MODIS and GOES satellite active fire detection products (MOD14 and WFABBA, respectively) and characterize their major sources of omission and commission errors which have important implications for a large community of fire data users. Our analyses were primarily based on the use...

Vegetation fires remain as one of the most important processes governing land use and land cover change in tropical areas. The large area extent of fire prone areas associated with human activities makes satellite remote sensing of active fires a valuable tool to help monitor biomass burning in those regions. However, identification of active fire...

This paper presents results of the AQL2004 project, which has been develope within the GOFC-GOLD Latin American network of remote sensing and forest fires (RedLatif). The project intended to obtain monthly burned-land maps of the entire region, from Mexico to Patagonia, using MODIS (moderate-resolution imaging spectroradiometer) reflectance data. T...

The NASA NEESPI portal is a multi-sensor, online, easy access data archive and distribution system to provide advanced data management capabilities in support of the Northern Eurasia Earth Science Partnership Initiative (NEESPI) scientific objectives. Its tools include data analysis and visualization, and other techniques for better science data us...

The NASA NEESPI Data Center is an online multi-sensor archive and distribution system of satellite remote sensing data designed to provide advanced data management capabilities in support of the NEESPI scientific objectives. Its tools include data analysis, visualization, and other techniques enhancing exploration of scientific data. The NASA NEESP...

Recent advances in instrument design have led to considerable improvements in wildfire mapping at regional and global scales. Global and regional active fire and burned area products are currently available from various satellite sensors. While only global products can provide consistent assessments of fire activity at the global, hemispherical or...

Fires in boreal and temperate forests play a significant role in the global carbon cycle. While forest fires in North America (NA) have been surveyed extensively by U.S. and Canadian forest services, most fire records are limited to seasonal statistics without information on temporal evolution and spatial expansion. Such dynamic information is cruc...

This LBE-ECO Phase III study is designed to assess the performance of active fire products which have been used to delineate the fire dynamics in the Brazilian Amazon basin and which are routinely used to feed biomass burning emissions models for the region. The initial analyses are focused primarily on the creation of a validated long term (1995-p...

The forests of high biological importance in the Russian Far East (RFE) have been experiencing increasing pressure from growing demands for natural resources under the changing economy of post-Soviet Russia. This pressure is further amplified by the rising threat of large and catastrophic fire occurrence, which threatens both the resources and the...

Russian boreal forests have been reshaped by wildland fire for millennia. While fire is a natural component of boreal ecosystems, it impacts various aspects of the environment and affects human well-being. Often fires occur over large remote areas with limited access, which makes their ground-based observation difficult. A significant progress has...

The Northern Eurasia Earth Science Partnership Initiative (NEESPI) is an international program of coordinated research on the state and dynamics of ecosystems in Northern Eurasia and their interactions with the Earth's Climate system. The program is designed to enhance scientific knowledge of these ecosystems as well as to develop predictive capabi...

Since the year 2000, the Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite (GOES) Wildfire Automated Biomass Burning Algorithm (WFABBA) has provided half-hourly fire products for the Western Hemisphere in near-real time from GOES-East and -West. Originally developed for studies of biomass burning in Brazil, the WFABBA can be applied to any data cov...

Wildland fires burn several hundred millio n hectares of vegetation every year, and increased fire activity has been reported in many global regions. Many of these fires have had serious negative impacts on human safety, health, regional economies, global climate change, and ecosystems in non - fire - prone biomes. Worldwide fire suppression expend...

This paper discusses the process of validating active fire "yes/no" binary fire detection products from moderate-resolution satellite sensors. General concepts and practical issues are illustrated by the validation of the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) active fire product in Siberia. Coincident Advanced Spaceborne Thermal Emi...

1] We describe a new global multiyear satellite fire product designed to meet the needs of the global modeling community. We use the new data set to analyze the global distribution of biomass burning using five different temporal metrics derived from 5 years of high-quality satellite data acquired with the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiome...

This paper presents an overview of current satellite-based fire mapping activities at several institutions in Russia that provide operational fire monitoring at federal and regional levels. The current operational systems are based on data from the Advanced Very High Resolution Radiometer (AVHRR) and the TIROS Operational Vertical Sounder (TOVS) on...

Fire is a critical management tool for forest conversion and maintenance of existing pastures in Amazonia. Varying patterns of fire use control the timing and magnitude of carbon emissions from land management. Quantifying the relative contribution of conversion and maintenance fires to satellite-based fire detections has proven elusive due to unce...

The VIIRS (Visible Infrared Imager Radiometer Suite) active fire detection algorithm builds on the heritage of the MODIS (Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer) Fires and Thermal Anomalies product. The MODIS active fire product has been systematically generated since late 2000. A validation framework of the MODIS active fire product has bee...

This paper describes the use of high-spatial-resolution ASTER data to determine the accuracy of the moderate- resolution MODIS active fire product. Our main objective was to develop a methodology to use ASTER data for quantitative evaluation of the MODIS active fire product and to apply it to fires in southern Africa during the 2001 burning season....

Correctly characterizing the frequency and distribution of fire occurrence is essential for understanding the environmental impacts of biomass burning. Satellite fire detection is analyzed from two sensors-the Advanced Very High Resolution Radiometer (AVHRR) on NOAA-12 and the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on both the Terra...

Fire influences global change and tropical ecosystems through its connection to land-cover dynamics, atmospheric composition, and the global carbon cycle. As such, the climate change community, the Brazilian government, and the Large-Scale BiosphereAtmosphere (LBA) Experiment in Amazonia are interested in the use of satellites to monitor and quanti...

Fire parameter estimation is performed using data obtained quasi-simultaneously by the Hot Spot Recognition System (HSRS) on the experimental Bi-spectral InfraRed Detection (BIRD) satellite and the MODerate resolution Imaging Spectro-radiometer (MODIS) on EOS Terra. Compared with the higher spatial resolution BIRD data, MODIS can not detect small f...

Data of the MODerate resolution Imaging Spectro-radiometers (MODIS) on the Terra and Aqua satellites are widely used for global and regional monitoring of active fires. MODIS, with their infrared channel resolution of 1 km at nadir do omit small fires, which leads to an underestimation of the cumulative fire radiative power (FRP) on a regional or g...

Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer ( MODIS) on board the NASA Earth Observing System Terra and Aqua satellites provides global fire observations of unprecedented quality. This paper presents spatial and temporal distributions of active fires from 2001 and 2002, the first 2 years of the MODIS active fire data record. Monthly fire counts w...

During the last decade a number of international projects and programmes have been initiated to address the ecological role and the environmental and humanitarian impacts of wildland fires. Considering the importance of the role of Eurasia's forests in the functioning of the global system and the potential threats by wildland fire to the sustainabi...

A new database of fire activity in Russia derived from 1-km resolution remote sensing imagery is presented and discussed. The procedure used to generate this burned-area product is described, including active-fire detection and burn-scar mapping approaches. Fire detection makes use of a probabilistic procedure using image data from the United State...

The importance of fire in tropical ecosystems is growing as both direct and indirect consequences of land use. Throughout the 80s and early 90s, constantly increasing human forcing and climate anomalies made forest fires in the Amazon Basin a major environmental issue. However, not all fires are equal. Some fires result in a major conversion of the...

Research on fire is often of an applied nature, addressing questions of how to manage landscapes for fire, how to determine fire danger, how to model fire behavior, fire impacts and post-fire succession (Martell 2001; Chuvieco 2003). This in part reflects the desire of the funding agencies to maximize the benefits from the large amounts of public m...

Abstract – Recent improvements ,in sensor capabilities have enabled fire characterization from ,satellites. Instantaneous intensities of active fires have been characterized by the ,Fire Radiative Power (FRP), while burn severity has been assessed from the evaluation of Normalized Burn Ratios (NBR) derived from pre- and post-fire multispectral imag...

Vegetation and peat fires play a major role in the global carbon cycle. CO 2, CH 4, and NO 2 and aerosols emitted during biomass combustion - perturb Earth's radiative budget. The amount of biomass combusted in a vegetation fire depends on fire intensity and fire severity. The determination of fire radiative energy release (FRE) per unit area allow...

1] This paper addresses practical issues related to the processing of 1-km National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) advanced very high resolution radiometer (AVHRR) data for producing a consistent, long-term time series of active fire locations over the Continental United States and Canada. The effects of the interannual changes in me...

This paper presents an evaluation of advanced very high resolution radiometer (AVHRR)-based remote sensing algorithms for detecting active vegetation fires [Li et al., 2000a] and mapping burned areas [Fraser et al., 2000] throughout North America. The procedures were originally designed for application in Canada with AVHRR data aboard the NOAA 14 s...

Satellite remote sensing of fires provides a unique view of our planet and quantitative information that can inform resource management and policy. Operational and experimental satellite sensing systems have the capability to provide regional and global monitoring of fires. These systems provide different types of fire information for estimation of...

Previously published values of pre-launch Advanced Very High Resolution Radiometer (AVHRR) 3.7 m channel saturation brightness temperatures (Robinson 1991) show inter-satellite differences as large as 10 K between AVHRRs on board National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) satellites from TIROS (Television Infrared Observation Satellite)...

Satellites provide valuable information for the large-scale monitoring of biomass burning over the globe. However, the accuracy of the satellite-derived fire products needs to be determined. An active fire product from the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) instrument on board the polar orbiter Terra satellite has been available...

An automated, satellite-based snow mapping system has been developed at NOAA/NESDIS to provide operational snow cover monitoring over the North American continent. The system uses visible, mid-infrared and infrared observations of the Imager instrument onboard NOAA's Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite (GOES) and microwave measurement...

The aim of the study is to quantify statistical relations between the Normalized Differential Vegetation Index (NDVI), derived from NOAA/AVHRR multi-channel irradiance, and yield of wheat and maize commonly covering 23.5% of Hungary. The 14 years period, 1985–1998 is used, reserving the later vegetation seasons for independent validation, in the fu...

Time series of National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA)/Advanced Very High Resolution Radiometer (AVHRR) Global Area Coverage (GAC) data, collected daily over two 50-km targets during March–June 1997 in Hungary, were corrected for angular effects using coincident multiangle Polarization and Directionality of the Earth's Reflectance (P...

Current National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) operational global- and continental-scale snow cover maps are produced interactively by visual analysis of satellite imagery. This snow product is subjective, and its preparation requires a substantial daily human effort. The primary objective of the current study was to develop an auto...

The development of the El Niño-Southern Oscillation (ENSO) in 1997-98, the most intense in this century, has been monitored by space- and ground-based observations. In this study, the authors present the signatures of ENSO impacts on the surface-atmosphere system, as detected in satellite products that are routinely derived at NOAA from measurement...

Biomass burning in North America (NA) occurs primarily over forested regions. The fires are usually so intense that they not only destroy vast tracts of forest, but also release large quantities of chemical species (CO, CO2, methane, etc.) and particles (aerosol) to the atmosphere. The emissions can affect weather, climate, and environment across N...

A set of algorithms is combined for a simple derivation of land surface albedo from measurements of reflected visible and near-infrared radiation made by the advanced very high resolution radiometer (AVHRR) onboard the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) polar orbiting satellites. The system consists of a narrowband-to-broadband...

A set of algorithms was combined for a simple derivation of land surface albedo from measurements of the Advanced Very High Resolution Radiometer (AVHRR) on board NOAA satellites. The system consists of a narrow-to-broadband conversion and bi-directional correction at the top of the atmosphere, and an atmospheric correction. We demonstrate the resu...

The fire product is an interdisciplinary product designed to meet the needs of the global change research and the fire applications community. The product was developed in response to a growing demand for spatially explicit fire data to parameterize and validate various regional and global models. Fire is an important component of trace gas and par...

A set of methods to estimate the surface radiation balance has been developed by using METEOSAT digital image data and a radiative transfer model. Cloud characteristics are determined from a recent method based on brightness temperature and its variance, whereas other necessary parameters are derived from the radiosonde network or its simulation (n...

Factor Analysis (FA) in S-mode is applied to classify the global radiation and the cloud distribution patterns derived from METEOSAT digital images. The aim of the areal classification is to construct a meta-archive of days with different cloud coverage for the derivation of surface climate parameters and also for the special needs of weather analy...

Radar and satellite measurements were simultaneously used for the detailed description of the properties of precipitating clouds. Existing raindrops were detected by digitised data of an MRL-5 radar measuring at 3 and 10 cms. This information was merged with the physical characteristics of precipitating clouds retrieved from the radiance data of th...

An atmospheric correction algorithm was applied to retrieve the visible and near-IR reflectances, the broadband surface albedo and the Normalised Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) from reflected solar radiances measured by the visible and near-IR channels of the Advanced Very High Resolution Radiometer (AVHRR) at the top of the atmosphere. The alg...

Radar and satellite measurements can be used for the detailed description of the properties of precipitating clouds. Radars primarily detect the existing raindrops. From the satellite radiances, however, one can derive such additional physical characteristics of the cloudiness that can provide information on the further development of the precipita...

One of the main factors determining the daily variation of the active surface temperature is the state of the vegetation cover. It can well be characterized by the Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI). In this study the relationship between NDVI and the daily variation of the active surface temperature was investigated over a 50×50 km area...

It is supposed that under clear sky and calm weather conditions the daily amplitude of the canopy temperature is determined by the sum of the net radiation from sunrise to noon and the thermal inertia of the air, plant and soil system. Based on satellite observations all of the three parameters can be estimated. In the paper the thermal inertia is...

An attempt was made to use TOVS retrievals in the precipitation forecasting at the Hungarian Meteorological Service. Some of the retrieved parameters are indispensable for the estimation of the precipitation. The spatial resolution of the satellite soundings in many cases makes it possible to monitor precipitation systems on a meso-alpha and larger...

Fire impact on Russian boreal forests has been studied for several decades. However, only remote sensing can currently provide consistent and unbiased observations of fire activity over the entire territory. Burned area estimates provide a critical input for numerous fields of science and resource management such as carbon cycle, climate modeling,...

The goal of this work is to establish an algorithm to be used for the derivation of a 15-year homogeneous time series of active fires over North America from NOAA/AVHRR data. The massive processing task requires an accurate, but computationally efficient algorithm. The single-pixel fire detection algorithm developed at the Canada Center for Remote...

There are a number of different satellite systems that are currently providing information on fire susceptibility, active fires, burned area, fire emissions and post fire recovery and a number that are being designed. Similarly, countries are collecting different information on the extent and characteristics of fires. There has been little coordina...

Data of the spectroradiometers MODIS on the Terra and Aqua satellites, which are obtained on a global scale 4 times a day, are widely used for global and regional monitoring of active fires. A disadvantage of MODIS is a rela-tively low resolution of 1 km. We investigated the effect of the resolution on the recognition of fire fronts and on the esti...

Landsat-class data have been instrumental to assess and quantify the performance of the EOS Terra/MODIS 1km Fire and Thermal Anomalies product (MOD14). Using 30m resolution reference active fire data derived from approximately 2,500 coincident ASTER scenes and 3,700 near-coincident Landsat5 TM scenes distributed globally, we analyzed a wide range o...