Monitoring of Wildfires in Quebec, Canada by the GOSAT TANSO-CAI

Abstract

Several large wildfires occurred in Quebec, Canada in June, 2013. Especially on the eastern side of James Bay, the fires continued to burn for a month over a wide forested area. The GOSAT (Greenhouse gases Observing SATellite) payload includes a multispectral imager (TANSO-CAI : Thermal And Near infrared Sensor for carbon Observation - Cloud and Aerosol Imager) which is suitable for observing the smoke issuing from wildfires. We report the results of wildfire monitoring in Quebec by the GOSAT TANSO-CAI. Firstly, we show that the wildfire smoke started in Quebec but subsequently crossed the Atlantic Ocean and reached the Norwegian coast. Then, we estimate the spatial and temporal pattern of burned forest area on the eastern side of James Bay using NDVI (Normalize Difference Vegetation Index) calculated from CAI data and near infrared data from CAI. The burned area showed a gradually expanding pattern and eventually became as large as about 47,000 hectares.