Use of satellite data for monitoring fire events in Poland

Statistics provided by the European Join Research Centre (JRC) in Ispra/Italy show that Poland is a third European country after Portugal and Spain in number of fires reported annually. The aim of this study was to assess if and how Earth Observation data can support the existing ground-based Forest Fire Information System in Poland. We have examined a sets of spaceborne data and products, i.e. Active Fire, Burned Area and Fire Radiative Power (FRP) i) to derive spatio-temporal distribution of fires, and ii) to evaluate fire intensity. The satellite fire database was built-up using MODIS, NOAA and ATSR data for the period 2001–2013. There was a clear spring and autumn fire season identified. Analysis of FRP derived from the MODIS Aqua/Terra showed a variation in the intensity of burning over Poland. The most intensive fires took place in 2002, 2003 and 2008 over arable lands and grasslands.