Fire Danger Monitoring Using ERS-1 SAR Images in the Case of Northern Boreal Forests

Research was carried out to assess the potential of imaging radar systems formonitoring forest fire danger. In Canada, daily forest fire danger ratings are generated by the Canadian ForestFire Danger Rating System (CFFDRS), based on estimates of fire weather indices (FWI) and measured foliar moisturecontent (FMC). To evaluate the potential of imaging radar, an experiment was conducted using test sitesconsisting of jack pine, black spruce and white spruce stands located in the MacKenzie river basin, NorthwestTerritories, Canada. Radar image intensity values from ERS-1 SAR imagery collected over these stands in 1994 werecompared to FWI indices and FMC data. FWI indices were calculated using data from local weather stations.Seasonal trends in radar backscatter (σ<Superscript>0</Superscript>) were shown to correlate with temperature and precipitation. Significant relationships were found between σ<Superscript>0</Superscript> and FWI codes and indices, particularly in thecase of the black spruce stands, with slow-drying fuels, like duff moisture code (DMC), drought code (DC), and build-upindex (BUI). Rates of changes in σ<Superscript>0</Superscript>were related to rates of changes in FMC, particularly in the case ofthe jack pine stands for old FMC and in the case of white spruce stands for composite FMC. Copyright Kluwer Academic Publishers 2002