ESA CarbonARA Amazon campaign provides valuable reference data while under-flying Sentinel-3
King’s College led field experiment generates reference datasets to improve the accuracy and reliability of satellite-derived Fire Radiative Power (FRP) products.
One of the most useful tools for monitoring global fire activity is satellite-derived Fire Radiative Power (FRP) — a measure of the radiant heat released by active fires. Because FRP is closely related to amounts of biomass burning, it provides valuable estimates of emissions from wildfires. The FRM4Fire project is currently collating information on the uncertainties associated with these satellite observations.
To help quantify those uncertainties, researchers at King’s College London (King’s) carried out several airborne campaigns — providing independent datasets intended to validate the satellite FRP retrievals while under-flying Sentinel-3 — most recently as part of the European Space Agency (ESA)’s CarbonARA project. This major collaborative field experiment was led by King’s College and is a collaboration between ESA, research institutions from ESA Member States, Brazil’s National Institute for Space Research (INPE), and Federal University of Western Pará (UFOPA).
Between September and December 2025, this airborne campaign characterised land in the eastern Amazon. A variety of advanced remote sensing methods were employed; sampling the atmosphere to measure the land-atmosphere transfers of greenhouse gases, particulates, and various air pollutants —both in and out of primary and degraded forest and also from fires.
Centred on a 100 × 100 km area around Santarém, Pará, a multi-scale observational strategy was used: ground-based flux towers and roving atmospheric sensors, as well as airborne remote sensing and atmospheric sampling. Between late September and October 2025, a British Antarctic Survey (BAS) Twin Otter research aircraft flew over primary and secondary forest, degraded landscapes, and active burn sites, collecting high-resolution measurements of surface properties, thermal signals from fires, smoke composition, and greenhouse-gas fluxes. These airborne observations will help to bridge gaps between the coarse resolution of satellite pixels and fine resolution ground-based measurements.
During the campaign, several fires were surveyed using thermal cameras onboard the Twin Otter. By combining these airborne observations with satellite data, CarbonARA will contribute valuable reference datasets that will help improve the accuracy and reliability of satellite-derived FRP products.
View from a UAV over a prescribed burn on a farm clearing secondary forest. An airborne survey was conducted over this fire during coincident satellite overpasses. Credit: Dr Mark Grosvenor, King’s
Ground view of the same prescribed burn, where researchers collected measurements of the smoke plume. Credit: Dr Mark Grosvenor, King’s College
Deforestation fire captured during an airborne survey onboard the BAS Twin Otter. Credit: Dr Farrer Owsley-Brown, King’s College.
Deforestation fire taken during an airborne survey by an optical camera installed in the main hatch of the BAS Twin Otter. Credit: Dr Callum Middleton & Dr Farrer Owsley-Brown, King’s College.
The CarbonARA team in front of the BAS Twin Otter, including staff from King’s College, British Antarctic Survey (BAS), INPE, and UFOPA. Credit: Prof. Martin Wooster, King’s College.
