Burned land mapping using NOAA-AVHRR and TERRA-MODIS

Spatial and temporal analysis of MODIS and AVHRR images have been carried out to discriminate burned areas from other land covers. Spatial and temporal analysis were performed based on statistical separability and temporal changes. The objective of these analysis was to find out the most sensitive bands for burned land mapping in order to design spectral indices better adapted to the discrimination of burned areas. MODIS images were found to be more sensitive than AVHRR images, caused by both the better spatial and spectral resolution. The near infrared and short-wave infrared bands were found more adequate than visible channels to separate burned areas from other land covers, although the thermal channels of AVHRR also contributed significantly to separability indices. This may be caused by the short time span between fire occurrence and image acquisition. These analysis will be the basis to derive global mapping of burned areas from coarse resolution sensors, such as MODIS and AVHRR.