FIRES - A PRE-OPERATIONAL FIRE RECOGNITION 
SYSTEM FOR SMALL SATELLITES 
H. Jahn 
Brieb Klaus 
Institut for Space Sensor Technology of DLR 
Dept. Sensor Systems 
Ridower Chaussee, 5 
D-12489 Berlin, Germany 
ISPRS Commission VII / Working Group 1 
ABSTRACT 
Vegetation fires are one of the important impacts on the renewable resources. An efficient fire management is 
often impossible due to missing fire detection in time. There are no systems available which solve the tasks of 
the detection, localisation, and classification of forest fires in near real-time. Existing remote sensing systems 
have essential drawbacks even for pure fire research. For these reasons a dedicated pre-operational system to 
demonstrate the feasibility and usefulness of a future operational fire detection system is proposed as a small 
satellite solution. The FIRES project is dedicated to the detection of forest and vegetation fires and the 
estimation of the consequences of fire disasters for the environment. 
The proposed smart sensor concept of FIRES, consisting of a fore field sensor to identify the areas of interest, 
a main sensor for a precise investigation of the areas of interest, and a sensor brain for real-time data 
processing and sensor control, is a novelty in remote sensing systems. The high level of on-board signal 
processing assures the identification of the areas of interest and the steering of a radiometrically adapted high 
resolution main imaging sensor to these areas. With this concept it is impossible to measure the signals from 
the areas of interest without saturation and to get information about the fire temperature and its spatial 
distribution. 
An additional high resolution VIS/NIR sensor system will be used for the assessment of revitalization of 
burned areas, for the estimation of the dimension of smoke plumes and subsequently the air pollution during 
the fire, and for forest or vegetation inventory as required. Important for the success of this mission is to limit 
the costs for the user. Therefore, the latest knowledge of system science must be applied to the thematic on- 
board pre-processing of the spectral image data for such a system. The user receives a high level data product 
directly from the satellite without delay, which enables him to manage his appropriate actions in an efficient 
manner. 
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