Smartsat CRC 3.04

The introduction of new geostationary sensors in the mid 2010's has created new opportunities for wildfire surveillance. Addressing this issue, geospatial researchers at RMIT University developed two new wildfire detection algorithms, utilising the “big data” capabilities of the Himawari-8/9 (H8/9) satellites which capture images of the full disk every 10 minutes at key spectral wavelengths and other polar orbiting sensors.

This PhD proposal will extend these techniques to investigate fire surveillance using such platforms and explore how these temporally rich data streams may be used to inform our descriptions of fire severity, particularly when coupled with more traditional satellite products such as NBR. Issues of smoke, scale (multi-resolution imaging and comparing in situ to image observations), fire radiative power, remaining fuel, tracking and canopy obscuration make for many and varied potential research questions.