Fire detection technology in Mongolia
Sanjaa.Tuya
Center for Environmental Remote Sensing of Chiba University
1-33 Yayoi-cho, Inage-ku, Chiba , 263-8522
Tel: (81)-43-290-3845
Fax: (81)-43-290-3857
E-mail: s.tuya@mailcity.com
Japan
Dr. C.P. Gross
Gesellschaft für angewandte Fernerkundung (GAF)
Arnulfstr. 197, D- 80634 München
Tel: (49) 89-12152820
Fax: (49) 89-12152879
E-mail: info@gaf.de
Germany
Yoshiaki Honda
Associate Professor
Center for Environmental Remote Sensing of Chiba University
1-33 Yayoi-cho, Inage-ku, Chiba , 263-8522
Tel: (81)-43-290-3835
Fax: (81)-43-290-3857
E-mail: yhonda@ceres.cr.chiba-ac.jp
Japan
Abstract
The purpose of this paper is to report on the use of satellite based real time fire monitoring system
(World Fire Web, WFW) for forest and steppe fire observation in Mongolia. An ability to quickly detect,
locate and respond to fires has thus become an important issue for Mongolia. The fire monitoring system
is based on using the existing facilities of the Information and Computer Center (ICC) of Ministry for
Nature and the Environment to receive daily meteorological satellite imagery (NOAA- AVHRR) which in
the thermal infrared sensitive band can detect sources of heat. This new approach is compared with an
well proved and operational detecting technology applied by ICC since years.
NOAA /AVHRR Satellite data
Advanced Very High Resolution Radiometer ('AVHRR', Goodrum et al 2000) data from the National
Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration ('NOAA') satellites have to date been the most widely used for
forest fire detection, providing global imaging of fires and fire scar areas. The AVHRR instrument is a
broad -band, four or five channel scanner, sensing in the visible, near-infrared, and thermal infrared
portions of the electromagnetic spectrum with a ground resolution is approximately 1.1 km at the satellite
nadir. The satellite orbits the Earth 14 times each day from 833 km above its surface with each satellite
pass providing a 2400 km wide swath. Nominally, there are two daily passes per day for each satellite,
giving a total of 6 passes per day over a given area from the three currently operating satellites (Table 1)
In addition to the relatively high temporal coverage and spatial resolution in comparison with other
systems, another advantage is the open policy of data transmission provided by the down-link at S-band
(1.7 GHz).
Table 1.Tem poral Coverage of the NOAA/AVHRR system
| Satellite |
Launch Date |
Ascending Node |
Descending Node |
Dates of Service |
| NOAA-12 |
14/05/91 |
19:30 |
07:30 |
14/05/91- Present |
| NOAA-14 |
30/12/94 |
13:40 |
01:40 |
30/12/94- Present |
Originally intended only as a meteorological satellite system, the AVHRR instrument remotely senses
cloud cover and sea surface temperature, enabling its visible and infrared detectors to observe trends in
vegetation, clouds, shore-lines, lakes, snow and ice. The visible and near infrared bands (channels 1
and 2) can detect smoke plumes from fires and also fire scars. The middle infrared band (channel 3) can
detect active fires. The ability to detect fires is greater at night, when there is less likelihood of confusing
active fires with heated ground surfaces. Saturation occurs at around 323 K in the middle infrared
channel.
Since 1987 the ICC daily receives the AVHRR data from NOAA meteorological satellite. The Quorum
HRPT receiving station can receive data from two polar orbiting meteorological satellite by using
QTRACK software on PC at a time. NOAA data is then stored as digital HRPT data on VAX- II
automatically by HRPT_AUTO software. The HRPT data stream includes data from all sensors aboard
the NOAA satellites. Channels 2 (near infrared), 3 (middle IR) and 5 (thermal IR) from AVHRR sensor
are extracted from the HRPT data stream for the detection of fires. Images of the size 1024 rows by 1024
columns are transferred to the forest and steppe fire detection. As the approximate time for one orbit is
100 min, the present receiving system QTRACK obtains data sets a day.
