Well Tasneem,

The L-band is one the only microwave bands which interacts with the stems of forest trees. By deduction, when a forest fire consumes tree stems, the backscatter of your microwave L-band sensor will drastically change when in VV polarization mode. The L-band is one of the only spectral bands in remote sensing usefull to estimate forest biomass. Hence,...forest fire monitoring !

Cheers,

Frank

Thank you so much Frank for such a great answer,

Can you please provide me any research paper related to this?

Actually I have to include a reference in my literature review part on this.   

Hi Tasneem,

A reference on the modelling of L-band baclscatter to detrmine forest biomass. Give sthe essence of the principle of biomass deteremination with microwave sensors in the L-band.

Cheers,

Frank

Thank you so much Frank..!

Hi Tasneem,

Before I forget, When you want active fire monitoring, then of course thermal IR sensors like on the NOAA-AVHRR  in L-Band transmission offer real-time fire monitoring or MSG-2 with thermal bands for the active fire  Euro-African Quadrant of the Earth each 15 minutes! But this evidenlty is more interesting for fire fighting and active forest fire monitoring.

For this, have a look at http://www.ict-fire.eu/home/fire-projects.html

Good stuff there and at least 15 years of experience of the teams involved.

Cheers and success with your study!

Frank

Hi Tasneem,

Do you know the JAXA K&C ALOS PALSAR backscatter mosaics? There are annual HH and HV global mosaics on 25m and 50m resolution. We assesed them for boreal forest cover and biomass mapping in Siberia. The data will aslo work for burnt area mapping. 

http://www.eorc.jaxa.jp/ALOS/en/palsar_fnf/fnf_index.htm

Some exmples from our activities here:

Article Exploiting Growing Stock Volume Maps for Large Scale Forest ...

Article Large Area Mapping of Boreal Growing Stock Volume on an Annu...

Article Operational Forest Monitoring in Siberia Using Multi-Source ...

Thanks Frank and Huettich

Tasneem,

To add just a little to Frank's excellent answers I wanted to say that besides using a thermal band to detect the temperture of active fires a spectral band in the TM SWIR bands wavelengths (bands 5 and 7 in Landsat TM imaging systems 5 and 7) can also be helpful.  This is because these wavelengths will penetrate thru moderate to somewhat heavy smoke plumes and clouds and allow you to see where the active fire areas are located.  Thermal bands have often been used at night time and the SWIR bands give a day time option.  They typically also have higher spatial resolution and are not as noisy. 

Good luck with your research.

Pat

Thank yo so much Pat for such a very valuable suggestion. 

Hello Tasmeen, this PALSAR-based change detection paper, though in boreal forests, could be of interest for mapping fires in your context:

Article Change detection of boreal forest using bi-temporal ALOS PAL...