Fire severity estimation from space: a comparison of active and passive sensors and their synergy for different forest types

Abstract

Monitoring fire effects at landscape level is viable from remote sensing platforms providing repeatable and consistent measurements. Previous studies have estimated fire severity using optical and synthetic aperture radar (SAR) sensors, but to our knowledge, none have compared their effectiveness. Our study carried out such a comparison by using change detection indices computed from pre- and post-fire Landsat and L-band space-borne SAR datasets to estimate fire severity for seven fires located on three continents. Such indices were related to field-estimated fire severity through empirical models, and their estimation accuracy was compared. Empirical models based on the joint use of optical..