Research project
Developing field measurement protocols for validating earth observation-based fire products. The project team is applying airborne data collected in a field campaign in September 2024 over Canada to compile uncertainty information will support confidence in Sentinel-3 fire observations.
Funded by the European Space Agency FRM4FIRE is identifying and characterising sources of uncertainty associated with Fire Radiative Power (FRP) retrievals from space, especially Sentinel-3 SLSTR.
Building on recent airborne validation experiments and the Fiducial Reference Measurement framework developed by the Cal/Val community, FRM4FIRE is a first step to establishing a way to independently collect FRP measurements. Outcomes will enable fully-characterised and traceable validation comparisons.
The transient nature of vegetation fires makes validating Fire Radiative Power (FRP) products a challenge. An absence of community-agreed protocols and limited quality assurance practices also limit trust in these measurements.
The impact of fires or the earth system means it is vital to set up effective ways vallidate Earth observation fire retrievals, and for these retrievals to be traceable — so help establish interoperability across satellite observations.
A FIDUCEO style approach to uncertainty characterisation, using tools and guidelines outlined by the GEO/CEOS Quality Assurance framework for Earth Observation (QA4EO) will be applied in — to identify, assess, and quantify the effects of sources of uncertainty (sensor and environment-related).
An End-to-End uncertainty model will be developed, whereby uncertainty may be propagated from Level 1 to FRP retrievals at Level 2 and Level 3.
Fiducial — adjective: taken as a standard of reference
The FRM concept
'... suite of independent ground measurements that provide the maximum Return On Investment for a satellite mission by delivering, to users, required confidence in data products, in the form of independent validation results and satellite measurement uncertainty estimation, over the entire end-to-end duration of a mission.' Donlon et al., 2015
FRM4FIRE is delivered by a partnership made up of experts in quality assurance, metrology, field measurements, data processing, and modelling.
At ESA’s Fire from Space workshop, Bernardo Mota emphasised that assessing and propagating uncertainty in satellite fire data can improve the reliability and confidence in wildfire monitoring. With ESA backing, this approach is helping shape the direction of fire monitoring science.
