Characterization of the Diurnal Cycle of Fire Activity Using Satellite Data

Principal Investigator:

Louis Giglio

This research primarily concerns characterizing the diurnal fire cycle in the tropics and subtropics, using observations from the Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission (TRMM) Visible and Infrared Spectrometer (VIRS), and MODIS on board the NASA-EOS Terra and Aqua satellites. VIRS active fire data are used to provide complete sampling of the diurnal burning cycle, coupled with sun-synchronous MODIS observations to correct for seasonal biases. Corrections for instrumental artifacts and biases introduced during the VIRS fire detection process are also necessary. Previous studies have ignored such potential error sources, which can have a major impact on the validity of the results. The research will determine in which particular regions diurnal cycles actually exist, the characteristics of these cycles, and whether or not observed differences in diurnal fire cycles between regions are significantly different. A secondary aspect of my research is to assess the fire detection capabilities of different satellite sensors currently being used for active fire monitoring, including MODIS, VIRS, and the GOES Imager.