MODIS-detected fire regime for Great Britain; 2007-2011

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Abstract

The spatial and temporal distribution of vegetation fires in Great Britain was mapped using publicly available Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) satellite databases; the Fire Information for Resource Management System (FIRMS) and German Space Agency (DLR) Fire Service Statistics. Geographical Information Science (GISc) techniques were used to analyse approximately 5 years of MODIS thermal hotspot data from January 2007 to May 2011, including the Spring 2011 fires. False positives were screened out using the CORINE land cover database. A subset for northwest England in Spring 2011 was then checked against large attended fires, here defined as those attended by >4 Fire Service vehicles in the Incident Recording System (IRS) for 18 April – 6 May 2011. The raw IRS data was supplied by the Department of Communities and Local Government for the purpose of undertaking quality assurance and so may have contained errors and omissions. MODIS detected three of the 27 qualifying fires in Lancashire, Greater Manchester, West Yorkshire and North Yorkshire. The Whitemoss, Simonswood fire was detected at the Lancashire-Merseyside border on 30 April – 7 May. There were multiple detections of the fire front of the largest (24 km2) 10 day fire at Anglezarke Moor, Belmont Reservoir on 29 April 2011, which supplement the incomplete IRS record. Fire front and IRS locations could be up to 4km apart, probably because IRS relates to the estimated ignition point. Despite mostly cloud-free conditions, the deep-seated peat fire in Wainstalls, West Yorkshire on 30 April – 8 May was missed, probably because the overpass did not catch the initial period of flaming combustion and then due to thick smoke. Other fires were probably too small (usually <40 ha) or cool at the time of the twice-daily daytime satellite overpass, or were obscured by cloud and smoke. The MODIS hotspot database therefore only detects GB’s largest and hottest vegetation fires. For these however, it provides a useful geographical representation at national scale, ahead of published data on attended fires and indicates fire front location. Such fires occur mainly on moorland in Spring, partly reflecting occurrence of optimal imaging conditions. IRS data for other seasons and locations is needed for a full quantitative evaluation.

Keyword(s)

GIS; MODIS; active fires; fire statistics; hotspots; satellite-detected fires; vegetation fires; wildfire

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