Comparison of ATSR and NOAA AVHRR hotspot data acquired during an exceptional fire event in Kalimantan (Indonesia)

In 1997 and 1998 uncontrolled fires devastated huge tracts of tropical rainforests in Kalimantan on the island of Borneo in Indonesia. Here we report on results of a comparative study of ERS-2 ATSR hotspot and NOAA-AVHRR hotspot data used to analyse the extent of this disaster. A burned scar map derived from a Landsat TM image acquired after the fires and extensive ground data were used to assess the accuracy of both systems in fire detection and burned scar mapping. With both it was possible to detect most burned scars. Complete mapping was probably impeded by thick haze which covered the area during active burning. Significantly more hotspots were detected by the NOAA AVHRR 14 system, which covers the area of Indonesia 2 times a day and acquires images at day and night. ATSR derived hotspots showed a slightly higher spatial accuracy than NOAA. By calculating the burned area from the hotspot data and its comparison to the Landsat TM derived burned scar map it was found that ATSR strongly underestimates the fire affected area using the presently applied algorithms, while NOAA AVHRR with day and night acquisitions slightly overestimates the burned area.