A case study on utilization of RISAT-1 SAR data for forest burnt area detection in India

Abstract

Synthetic Aperture Radar sensors are very sensitive to changes in soil moisture and surface roughness, making SAR useful for characterizing long-term post-fire patterns/trends. The present study has analyzed and quantified forest burnt areas of selected fire prone ecosystems i.e. Nallamalais of Andhra Pradesh and Part of Tripura, India. RISAT-1 data pertaining to pre and post fire were utilized. Encouraging results are obtained based on backscattering coefficient for pre and post fires events in two study areas.