Article
Environmental Sciences
Victor Fernandez-Garcia, Esteban Alonso-Gonzalez
Summary: Despite the widespread belief that global burned area and severity are increasing due to climate change, our study found a decrease in global burned area and an increase in the fraction of burned area affected by high severity. African grasslands and savannas were the most fire-prone biomes, while taiga and tundra had the highest burn severity. Although climate plays a role in the spatial patterns of burned area and severity, our study did not find climate warming to be the primary driver of current shifts in fire regimes at the global scale.
Article
Geosciences, Multidisciplinary
Weiwei Wang, Xianli Wang, Wanli Wu, Futao Guo, Jane Park, Guangyu Wang
Summary: This study investigated the burn severity in the Canadian Rocky Mountain region using satellite imagery. It found that fuel type had the most significant influence on burn severity, while topography, vegetation, and climate had equal contributions. The study also predicted the burn severity potential in different areas and highlighted the effectiveness of fire management in local communities.
GEOPHYSICAL RESEARCH LETTERS
(2022)
Article
Remote Sensing
Emanuel Arnal Storey, Krista R. Lee West, Douglas A. Stow
Summary: This study evaluated the accuracy of LANDSAT-derived burned area maps for 19 fires in southern California from 1996 to 2018, using high-resolution aerial images for validation and optimizing classification thresholds based on burn severity metrics. Results showed that classifications based on standard difference metrics were more accurate than those based on relative-difference metrics, with dNBR having the greatest overall accuracy compared to other spectral indices.
INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF REMOTE SENSING
(2021)
Article
Ecology
J. N. Williams, H. D. Safford, N. Enstice, Z. L. Steel, A. K. Paulson
Summary: Although fire is a fundamental ecological process, climate warming and fire suppression have caused wildfires to burn at higher severity levels across larger areas in western North American forests. In the Sierra Nevada-Southern Cascades ecoregion, annual area burned and the percentage of high severity burn areas have increased rapidly. The shift towards high-severity burning is disrupting forest ecosystems and calls for a better balance between fire suppression and proactive fuel reduction to enhance forest resilience to climate change and disturbances.
Article
Multidisciplinary Sciences
John P. McLaughlin, John W. Schroeder, Angela M. White, Kate Culhane, Haley E. Mirts, Gina L. Tarbill, Laura Sire, Matt Page, Elijah J. Baker, Max Moritz, Justin Brashares, Hillary S. Young, Rahel Sollmann
Summary: This study investigates the food webs in unburned, low-to-moderate, and high severity burned habitats three years after wildfires in the Eldorado National Forest, California. The results show a large number of trophic interactions between plants and animals under different burn conditions. The study also provides data on taxonomy, body size, biomass density, and trophic interactions for each burn condition.
Article
Forestry
Gina Cova, Van R. Kane, Susan Prichard, Malcolm North, Alina Cansler
Summary: This study evaluated the spatial patterns of burn severity for 18 exceptionally large fires and compared their cumulative impacts to smaller fires in California forests. The results show that these large fires significantly affect the landscape pattern and reduce the fine-scale heterogeneity, which can have negative implications for forest biodiversity and resilience to wildfires and climate change.
FOREST ECOLOGY AND MANAGEMENT
(2023)
Article
Environmental Sciences
Donato Morresi, Raffaella Marzano, Emanuele Lingua, Renzo Motta, Matteo Garbarino
Summary: Deriving burn severity from multispectral satellite data is crucial to infer environmental change caused by fire, with temporal constraints such as matched acquisition and optimal timing playing a significant role in the variation of burn severity maps. Reflectance composites using Sentinel-2 imagery were found to have the highest overall classification accuracy in producing burn severity maps, offering new opportunities for operational change detection applications.
REMOTE SENSING OF ENVIRONMENT
(2022)
Article
Environmental Sciences
Max J. van Gerrevink, Sander Veraverbeke
Summary: Fire severity, determined by the impact of a fire on the environment, is crucial for modeling fire emissions and planning rehabilitation efforts. The dNBR spectral index outperformed the dNDVI(MID) index in assessing fire severity, displaying stronger relationships with field data and higher optimality values. Future research should further verify the effectiveness of the dNDVI(MID) approach in estimating fire severity over larger areas.
Article
Remote Sensing
Rafael Llorens, Jose Antonio Sobrino, Cristina Fernandez, Jose M. Fernandez-Alonso, Jose Antonio Vega
Summary: A methodology utilizing Sentinel 2 images to estimate forest fire affected areas and burn severity levels was proposed and successfully applied to fires in Spain and Portugal in October 2017. The comparison with EFFIS showed that this methodology improved area estimates by 10% and exhibited high correlation in terms of burn severity levels.
INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF APPLIED EARTH OBSERVATION AND GEOINFORMATION
(2021)
Article
Ecology
Yusuke Hiraga, M. Levent Kavvas
Summary: This study found strong relationships between meteorological indices and burned area sizes of large wildfires in Northern California, indicating the significant impact of dry atmosphere/soil and windy conditions on recent wildfire activities in the region. The findings could help improve wildfire risk forecasting and enhance understanding of wildfire occurrence and growth mechanisms.
Article
Environmental Sciences
Max J. van Gerrevink, Sander Veraverbeke
Summary: This study evaluates the spectral sensitivity of the dNBR using hyperspectral imagery and identifies the optimal bi-spectral NIR SWIR combination. The best performing combination was found to be bands 63 and 218, which showed a strong relationship with field data and had a median spectral index optimality statistic of 0.31. The hyperspectral sensitivity analysis revealed optimal NIR and SWIR bands for the composition of the dNBR, providing insights for assessing fire severity using hyperspectral data.
Article
Ecology
Saba J. Saberi, Brian J. Harvey
Summary: This study found that commonly used indices of burn severity may underestimate or overestimate the severity of fires in areas experiencing short-interval reburns. The degree of underestimation or overestimation depends on the severity of the fire preceding a reburn. Adjustments to burn severity measurements are crucial in accurately assessing the severity of short-interval reburns.
Article
Environmental Sciences
Emanuele Alcaras, Domenica Costantino, Francesca Guastaferro, Claudio Parente, Massimiliano Pepe
Summary: This article introduces the use of satellite multispectral images for monitoring burned areas and proposes a new index called NBR+ for better detection. The NBR+ index shows excellent results by excluding areas incorrectly classified as burned by other indices due to clouds or water bodies.
Article
Multidisciplinary Sciences
David E. Rother, Fernando De Sales, Doug Stow, Joe McFadden
Summary: Burn severity has significant effects on postfire vegetation recovery and boundary-layer climate. The study found that high severity fires resulted in the greatest reduction in vegetation, but also the fastest recovery rate. However, after five years, neither land surface temperature nor vegetation index returned to prefire levels.
Article
Environmental Sciences
Clement J. F. Delcourt, Alisha Combee, Brian Izbicki, Michelle C. Mack, Trofim Maximov, Roman Petrov, Brendan M. Rogers, Rebecca C. Scholten, Tatiana A. Shestakova, Dave van Wees, Sander Veraverbeke
Summary: This study utilized Sentinel-2 satellite imagery and field data in Northeast Siberian larch-dominated forests to assess fire severity, finding that dNBR can be used to predict fire severity and performs better in mature larch stands. Future research is needed to further refine spaceborne fire severity assessments in the larch forests of Northeast Siberia.
Article
Environmental Sciences
Adrianna C. Foster, Jacquelyn K. Shuman, Brendan M. Rogers, Xanthe J. Walker, Michelle C. Mack, Laura L. Bourgeau-Chavez, Sander Veraverbeke, Scott J. Goetz
Summary: Forest characteristics, structure, and dynamics in the North American boreal region are influenced by wildfire intensity, severity, and frequency. Increasing temperatures may result in more intense and frequent fires, but an increase in deciduous forest cover could decrease flammability. A forest model was used to analyze the bottom-up (fuels) and top-down (climate) controls on fire activity and project future dynamics. The model showed good agreement with observations and predicted changes in biomass and fire probability.
ENVIRONMENTAL RESEARCH LETTERS
(2022)
Editorial Material
Biodiversity Conservation
Stef Bokhorst, J. Hans C. Cornelissen, Sander Veraverbeke
GLOBAL CHANGE BIOLOGY
(2022)
Article
Geochemistry & Geophysics
Glynn C. Hulley, Frank M. Gottsche, Gerardo Rivera, Simon J. Hook, Robert J. Freepartner, Maria Anna Martin, Kerry Cawse-Nicholson, William R. Johnson
Summary: The ECOSTRESS satellite provides high-resolution thermal infrared data, with validation of Land Surface Temperature and emissivity performed at fourteen global sites. Results show good agreement with ground-based measurements and potential calibration issues for future reprocessing.
IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON GEOSCIENCE AND REMOTE SENSING
(2022)
Article
Environmental Sciences
Wenxuan Xu, Rebecca C. Scholten, Thomas D. Hessilt, Yongxue Liu, Sander Veraverbeke
Summary: This study quantified the proportion and burned areas of overwintering fires in Yakutia, eastern Siberia for the first time. The results showed that overwintering fires accounted for a relatively small proportion of the total burned area compared to lightning and anthropogenic fires. However, they played a significant role in the extreme fire season of 2020 and had distinct spatiotemporal characteristics. Incorporating overwintering fires as a separate fire category is necessary for modeling future boreal fire regimes.
ENVIRONMENTAL RESEARCH LETTERS
(2022)
Article
Environmental Sciences
Thomas D. Hessilt, John T. Abatzoglou, Yang Chen, James T. Randerson, Rebecca C. Scholten, Guido van der Werf, Sander Veraverbeke
Summary: This study investigated the factors influencing the efficiency of lightning ignitions in boreal forests in Alaska and Northwest Territories between 2001 and 2018. It found that short-term fuel drying associated with fire weather was the main driver of lightning ignition efficiency. Lightning was also more likely to ignite wildfires in denser, evergreen forest areas. Under a high greenhouse gas emissions scenario, the study predicted an increase in lightning ignition efficiency and occurrence of lightning-caused fires with future warming.
ENVIRONMENTAL RESEARCH LETTERS
(2022)
Review
Geochemistry & Geophysics
Matthew W. Jones, John T. Abatzoglou, Sander Veraverbeke, Niels Andela, Gitta Lasslop, Matthias Forkel, Adam J. P. Smith, Chantelle Burton, Richard A. Betts, Guido R. van der Werf, Stephen Sitch, Josep G. Canadell, Cristina Santin, Crystal Kolden, Stefan H. Doerr, Corinne Le Quere
Summary: This article reviews the impacts of climate change on fire weather and the consequences for regional fire activity. It finds that fire weather controls the annual timing of fires in most world regions, and the frequency and extremity of fire weather have been globally pervasive due to climate change. Increases in burned area have also been seen in some forest regions, but other factors can override the relationship between burned area and fire weather.
REVIEWS OF GEOPHYSICS
(2022)
Article
Environmental Sciences
Mats Riet, Sander Veraverbeke
Summary: A simple modeling technique based on linear spectral mixture analysis is presented to assess the detectability of sub-pixel burned area by satellite. An experiment using spectral data from Yellowstone National Park in the USA was conducted. The results showed that the average park-wide detectability of burned area was consistent across different satellites, and detectability was reached when around a quarter of a pixel's area was burned. However, a certain proportion of modeled burned pixels remained undetectable, especially those with low pre-fire vegetation cover.
Article
Environmental Sciences
Evelien de Hoop, Hilde J. H. Brouwers, Sophie L. Buijs, Linde Egberts, Max J. van Gerrevink, Marleen C. de Ruiter, Sander Veraverbeke
Summary: This research investigates the stakeholders' needs for reducing fire risk in the Veluwe area in the Netherlands. The analysis reveals that stakeholders face new challenges in reshaping policy tools, rethinking landscape values, establishing collaboration platforms, and developing interdisciplinary knowledge to address current fire risk challenges.
ENVIRONMENTAL RESEARCH LETTERS
(2022)
Article
Multidisciplinary Sciences
Rebecca C. Scholten, Dim Coumou, Fei Luo, Sander Veraverbeke
Summary: Northeastern Siberia experienced unprecedented fire activity in the summers of 2019, 2020, and 2021, driven by record high temperatures. Early snowmelt and an anomalous Arctic front jet contributed to unusually warm and dry surface conditions, resulting in high lightning and fire activity. These climatological factors have led to extreme fires in eastern Siberia and the potential degradation of carbon-rich permafrost peatlands.
Article
Multidisciplinary Sciences
Yuquan Qu, Diego G. Miralles, Sander Veraverbeke, Harry Vereecken, Carsten Montzka
Summary: In many parts of the world, conditions for wildfires are increasing. This study examines the impact of weather and fuel conditions on wildfires and finds that weather plays a larger role than fuel, especially in tropical rainforests, mid-latitudes, and Siberian boreal forests. Fuel conditions are more dominant in North American and European boreal forests, as well as African and Australian savannahs. The study also highlights the complementary predictability of weather and fuel conditions for wildfire forecasting, with seasonal or interannual predictions feasible in areas where fuel conditions dominate.
NATURE COMMUNICATIONS
(2023)
Article
Ecology
Stefano Potter, Sol Cooperdock, Sander Veraverbeke, Xanthe Walker, Michelle C. Mack, Scott J. Goetz, Jennifer Baltzer, Laura Bourgeau-Chavez, Arden Burrell, Catherine Dieleman, Nancy French, Stijn Hantson, Elizabeth E. Hoy, Liza Jenkins, Jill F. Johnstone, Evan S. Kane, Susan M. Natali, James T. Randerson, Merritt R. Turetsky, Ellen Whitman, Elizabeth Wiggins, Brendan M. Rogers
Summary: Fire is a major disturbance in Alaskan and Canadian boreal ecosystems, releasing significant amounts of carbon into the atmosphere. The increase in burned area and carbon emissions due to climate change can potentially shift the region from a carbon sink to a carbon source. Therefore, it is crucial to monitor the changes in burned area and fire carbon emissions over time.
Article
Remote Sensing
Yanxi Li, Rui Chen, Binbin He, Sander Veraverbeke
Summary: This study integrated optical data and synthetic aperture radar (SAR) data to estimate foliage fuel load (FFL) by analyzing spatiotemporal features. The results showed that both SAR and optical data contributed significantly to FFL estimation, with the best performance achieved when the two data sources were combined. Additionally, temporal features were found to be more important predictors of FFL than spatial features.
INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF APPLIED EARTH OBSERVATION AND GEOINFORMATION
(2022)
Article
Geosciences, Multidisciplinary
Dave van Wees, Guido R. van der Werf, James T. Randerson, Brendan M. Rogers, Yang Chen, Sander Veraverbeke, Louis Giglio, Douglas C. Morton
Summary: In fire emission models, the spatial resolution of the modelling framework and satellite data have a considerable impact on emission estimates. Using a 500 m resolution model based on MODIS data, global average carbon emissions from fire were calculated to be 2.1 Pg C yr(-1) during 2002-2020. Fire-related forest loss accounted for a significant portion of global burned area and emissions, indicating higher fuel consumption in forest fires compared to the global average. Soil organic carbon combustion in the boreal region and tropical peatlands also contributed to global emissions.
GEOSCIENTIFIC MODEL DEVELOPMENT
(2022)
Article
Ecology
Clement Jean Frederic Delcourt, Sander Veraverbeke
Summary: This study presents values of mean squared diameter and specific gravity that can be used to calculate fine dead and downed woody debris loads in Cajander larch forests in northeast Siberia. These values provide important references for accurately estimating aboveground biomass in the region.
Article
Environmental Studies
Jasper Dijkstra, Tracy Durrant, Jesus San-Miguel-Ayanz, Sander Veraverbeke
Summary: This study developed random forest models to predict the occurrence and burned area of anthropogenic and lightning fires in Europe, and found that the majority of fires and burned area in Europe are caused by human activities. However, lightning plays a significant role in the remote northern regions of Scandinavia.
Article
Environmental Sciences
Ruonan Chen, Liangyun Liu, Xinjie Liu, Zhunqiao Liu, Lianhong Gu, Uwe Rascher
Summary: This study presents methods to accurately estimate sub-daily GPP from SIF in evergreen needleleaf forests and demonstrates that the interactions among light, canopy structure, and leaf physiology regulate the SIF-GPP relationship at the canopy scale.
REMOTE SENSING OF ENVIRONMENT
(2024)
Article
Environmental Sciences
Daniel L. Goldberg, Madankui Tao, Gaige Hunter Kerr, Siqi Ma, Daniel Q. Tong, Arlene M. Fiore, Angela F. Dickens, Zachariah E. Adelman, Susan C. Anenberg
Summary: A novel method is applied in this study to directly use satellite data to evaluate the spatial patterns of urban NOx emissions inventories. The results show that the 108 spatial surrogates used by NEMO are generally appropriate, but there may be underestimation in areas with dense intermodal facilities and overestimation in wealthy communities.
REMOTE SENSING OF ENVIRONMENT
(2024)
Article
Environmental Sciences
Zhuoyue Hu, Xiaoyan Li, Liyuan Li, Xiaofeng Su, Lin Yang, Yong Zhang, Xingjian Hu, Chun Lin, Yujun Tang, Jian Hao, Xiaojin Sun, Fansheng Chen
Summary: This paper proposes a whisk-broom imaging method using a long-linear-array detector and high-precision scanning mirror to achieve high-resolution and wide-swath thermal infrared data. The method has been implemented in the SDGs satellite and has shown promising test results.
REMOTE SENSING OF ENVIRONMENT
(2024)
Article
Environmental Sciences
Dandan Wang, Leiqiu Hu, James A. Voogt, Yunhao Chen, Ji Zhou, Gaijing Chang, Jinling Quan, Wenfeng Zhan, Zhizhong Kang
Summary: This study evaluates different schemes for determining model coefficients to quantify and correct the anisotropic impact from remote sensing LST for urban applications. The schemes have consistent results and accurately estimate parameter values, facilitating the broadening of parametric models.
REMOTE SENSING OF ENVIRONMENT
(2024)
Article
Environmental Sciences
Jamie Tolan, Hung - Yang, Benjamin Nosarzewski, Guillaume Couairon, Huy V. Vo, John Brandt, Justine Spore, Sayantan Majumdar, Daniel Haziza, Janaki Vamaraju, Theo Moutakanni, Piotr Bojanowski, Tracy Johns, Brian White, Tobias Tiecke, Camille Couprie
Summary: Vegetation structure mapping is crucial for understanding the global carbon cycle and monitoring nature-based approaches to climate adaptation and mitigation. This study presents the first high-resolution canopy height maps for California and Sao Paulo, achieved through the use of very high resolution satellite imagery and aerial lidar data. The maps provide valuable tools for forest structure assessment and land use monitoring.
REMOTE SENSING OF ENVIRONMENT
(2024)
Article
Environmental Sciences
Regina Eckert, Steffen Mauceri, David R. Thompson, Jay E. Fahlen, Philip G. Brodrick
Summary: In this paper, a mathematical framework is proposed to improve the retrieval of surface reflectance and atmospheric parameters by leveraging the expected spatial smoothness of the atmosphere. Experimental results show that this framework can reduce the surface reflectance retrieval error and surface-related biases.
REMOTE SENSING OF ENVIRONMENT
(2024)
Article
Environmental Sciences
Chongya Jiang, Kaiyu Guan, Yizhi Huang, Maxwell Jong
Summary: This study presents the Field Rover method, which uses vehicle-mounted cameras to collect ground truth data on crop harvesting status. The machine learning approach and remote sensing technology are employed to upscale the results to a regional scale. The accuracy of the remote sensing method in predicting crop harvesting dates is validated through comparison with satellite data.
REMOTE SENSING OF ENVIRONMENT
(2024)
Article
Environmental Sciences
Oksana V. Lunina, Anton A. Gladkov, Alexey V. Bochalgin
Summary: In this study, an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) was used to detect and map surface discontinuities with displacements of a few centimeters, indicating the presence of initial geological deformations. The study found that sediments of alluvial fans are susceptible to various tectonic and exogenous deformational processes, and the interpretation of ultra-high resolution UAV images can help recognize low-amplitude brittle deformations at an early stage. UAV surveys are critical for discerning neotectonic activity and its related hazards over short observation periods.
REMOTE SENSING OF ENVIRONMENT
(2024)
Article
Environmental Sciences
Feng Zhao, Weiwei Ma, Jun Zhao, Yiqing Guo, Mateen Tariq, Juan Li
Summary: This study presents a data-driven approach to reconstruct the terrestrial SIF spectrum using measurements from the TROPOMI instrument on Sentinel-5 precursor mission. The reconstructed SIF spectrum shows improved spatiotemporal distributions and demonstrates consistency with other datasets, indicating its potential for better understanding of the ecosystem function.
REMOTE SENSING OF ENVIRONMENT
(2024)
Article
Environmental Sciences
Stephen Stehman, John E. Wagner
Summary: This article investigates optimal sample allocation in stratified random sampling for estimation of accuracy and proportion of area in applications where the target class is rare. The study finds that precision of estimated accuracy has a stronger impact on sample allocation than estimation of proportion of area, and the trade-offs among these estimates become more pronounced as the target class becomes rarer. The results provide quantitative evidence to guide sample allocation decisions in specific applications.
REMOTE SENSING OF ENVIRONMENT
(2024)
Article
Environmental Sciences
Jingyao Zheng, Tianjie Zhao, Haishen Lu, Defu Zou, Nemesio Rodriguez-Fernandez, Arnaud Mialon, Philippe Richaume, Jianshe Xiao, Jun Ma, Lei Fan, Peilin Song, Yonghua Zhu, Rui Li, Panpan Yao, Qingqing Yang, Shaojie Du, Zhen Wang, Zhiqing Peng, Yuyang Xiong, Zanpin Xing, Lin Zhao, Yann Kerr, Jiancheng Shi
Summary: Soil moisture and freeze/thaw (F/T) play a crucial role in water and heat exchanges at the land-atmosphere interface. This study reports the establishment of a wireless sensor network for soil moisture and temperature over the permafrost region of Tibetan Plateau. Satellite-based surface soil moisture (SSM) and F/T products were evaluated using ground-based measurements. The results show the reliability of L-band passive microwave SSM and F/T products, while existing F/T products display earlier freezing and later thawing, leading to unsatisfactory accuracy.
REMOTE SENSING OF ENVIRONMENT
(2024)