Mapping forest-fire damage with Envisat

The Medium Resolution Imaging Spectrometer (MERIS) which is carried by ESA's Envisat environmental satellite, to provide wildfire damage information, is discussed. The MERIS instrument estimates the degree of damage caused by forest fires from its multi-spectral imaging capabilities in the visible and near-infrared regions of the spectrum and its narrow spectral bands. The study area known as Valencia de Alcántara, delineated on the accompanying MERIS image, for the analysis procedures. It is observed that MERIS-based estimates of wildfire damage over forested areas can be extremely useful not only in establishing the scale of the damage, but also for the subsequent forest renewal projects and for subsidy management.