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Canadian Wildland Fire Monitoring System (CWFMS)

Jeffrey Cain, Ph.D., P.Eng. COM DEV International

Feb 2nd, 2016

1st Canadian SmallSat Symposium Toronto, Canada

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Acknowledgements •  Thepresenterwouldliketoacknowledgethecontributionsof

theentireCWFMSmicrosatelliteteamwhichincludesrepresentativesfromallofthefollowingorganizations

•  TheCWFMSmissionstudyisfundedbytheCanadianSpaceAgencywithNGCAerospaceastheprimecontractor

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Canadian Wildlands •  Canadacontains28%oftheworld’sborealzoneandapproximately410

millionhectaresofforestsandwoodlands•  Onaverage,therehasbeenanincreaseinthefrequencyandintensityof

forestfiresoverthepast30years•  Continuedglobalwarmingoftheborealregionwillmakethistrendworse•  Inaddition,therearenewtypesoffuelbeingcreatedinCanadadueto

issueslike–  Treemortalityfromtheexpansionofinsects

–  Thawingpeatlands

Forest composition across Canada. 2014. Natural Resources Canada, Canadian Forest Service, Ottawa

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Canadian Wildland Fires •  Canadianforests’intense,fast-spreadingwildfireshavealargeimpacton

theCanadianeconomyandthewell-beingofCanadians:–  Significanthealthandsafetyhazards:

•  thedestructionofcommunitiesandindustrialactivities;•  smokecantravelgreatdistancesandseverelydegradeairquality

–  Approximately$1billionyearlytomanage;•  Includingdetection,suppressionandevacuationofcommunities

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A snapshot from last year •  Duringthepeakburningmonths(May–Sept)weeklysituationreportsare

filed.•  ThereportfromSept2ndstatesthattherewere

–  77newfires•  Oftheexisting,activefires

–  20uncontrolled–  131controlled–  261modifiedresponse

•  Therehadbeen6,669firestodate

–  10yearaverageis5,301•  3,953,043hahadbeenburned

(9.8millionacres)

Week of Sept 2nd

5 CSRS, 10 June 2015 CWFMS

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Fire management and data collection •  InCanada,

–  Firemanagementisprimarilyconductedbyprovincialandterritorialgovernmentagencies

–  FireresearchisperformedbyCanadianForestryServices(underNRCan)firespecialists

•  Informationisgatheredfromground,airborneandspaceresourcesbutnoneprovidethequalityand/ortimelinessofthedatathatisrequired–  Existingsystemstendtocoveronlylocalizedareaswithafocuson

areasthathavethegreatestimpacttotheCanadianpopulation–  Thereareanumberofexistingandplannedspaceassets,butthey

tendto•  Haveinsufficientspatialresolutionanddynamicrange,•  Haveinsufficientdatalatency,or•  ProvideinsufficientcoverageoftheCanadianforests

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Available Remote-Sensing Data

7 CSRS, 10 June 2015 CWFMS

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National Burn Area Composite (NBAC)

SPOT VGT (coarse res.)

Agencies (LFDB)

Landsat (fine res.)

SPOT VGT

Landsat

Agencies

MODIS

Rules

Desire–ToensurethebestavailableburnareaproductsacrossCanadaatanytimeActual–Accesstoburnareaproductsavailablefrommulti-sources,BUTatdifferenttimes…

…

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Objectives of the CWFMS mission •  CWFMSusesasinglespaceplatformtomeetthemandatesofseveral

CanadianGovernmentDepartmentswithinareasonablecostenvelope–  Additionalassetscanimprovedatalatencyandtemporalcoverage

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Objectives of the CWFMS mission •  TheobjectiveistodevelopaCanadianwildlandfiremonitoringand

trackingsystemwhichprovides–  Nearreal-timeinformationinsupportofwildlandfiremanagement–  Emissionmeasurementsinsupportofinternationalrequirementsfor

carbonreportingandforairqualityforecasting

http://www.nrcan.gc.ca/forests/climate-change/forest-carbon/13103

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Objectives of the CWFMS mission •  Thespaceplatformreducesongoingoperationalcostsbyproviding

–  ContinuousmonitoringofthewholeofCanada–  Shortdelaybetweenthefirestarttimeanditsdetection–  Accuratedataonfireintensity,growth,location,fueltypeandair

quality

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Mission priorities •  Themissionprioritiesareto

–  Providereliablefireradiativepowerdatawiththegoalofenablingthecalculationofthefireradiativeenergy

•  RequireshigherfrequencyFRPmeasurements(e.g.6hours)–  Providedataonhotspotsinordertodetermineandcorrelateactive

fireperimetermaps–  Makerateofspreadmeasurementsbasedonthechangesinhotspot

dataovertime–  Performburnedareamapping

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Coverage and imaging requirements •  Thesatelliteisrequiredto

–  ProvidethecapabilitytoobserveanypointwithintheAoIatleastonceevery24hours

–  ObserveatleastonepointwithintheAoIduringthepeakburningperiod(15:00and19:00localtime)

–  Lowdatalatency(<30minutesforprioritydata)–  Highaccuracygeo-referencing–  Improvedspatialresolutionoverexistingsystems(<500m)

13 CSRS, 10 June 2015 CWFMS

“IntensiveProtectionZone”:•  Operationswillneedtobeset

inmotionwhenawildfireisdetected

•  Highrevisitneeded“ModifiedResponseZone”:•  nooperationswillneedtobe

setinmotion•  Lowerrevisitneeded

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Observation bands •  SpectralbandscanbeaddedtoMWIRandLWIRcamerasfornewapplications

–  MWIR–UsedforhightemperatureeventsandFRPmeasurements–  LWIR–Usedforfalsedetection(sunglint)andsubpixelfire

characterization–  NIR–Cloudmappingandmappingofgrasscuring(fuelmeasurement)–  VIS-Red–Cloudmappingandburnedareamapping

Camera Spectral band (um) GSD (m) Detector Solution

Vis-NIR

B1: 0.5-0.6 (green) 250

High density CCD

B2: 0.6-0.7 (red)

B3: 0.8-0.9 (NIR)

SWIR B4: 1.55-1.75 250 Staggered arrays of 1024x1 InGaAs photodiodes

MWIR B5: 3.5-4.2 500

Staggered arrays of 512x3 VOx microbolometers LWIR B6: 10.4-11.3

B7: 11.4-12.3

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Mission implementation CWFMS MISSION

CWFMSSatellite

Satellite Control Centre (SCC) Data Processing

Centre (DPC)

PayloadTasking

Payload Telemetry (health/housekeeping)

Spacecraft Position/Pointing

Prince AlbertS-band TT&C and payload data

Gatineau

InuvikOptional Payload

data downlink

Payload Data (Level 0)

Level 1b Radiance Data

Level 1b Priority Radiance Data

Daily Processing Cycle

30 min Processing Cycle

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Microsatellite design example

16 CSRS, 10 June 2015 CWFMS

MissionParameters:OrbitType Sun-Synchronous,dawn-dusk(6am/6pmLTAN)

Altitude 585km

SwathWidth 1200km

SatelliteWeight 140kg

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Average daily coverage – single satellite

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Using a bent pipe architecture gives …

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Mission products

•  Firemaps–location,extent,timing

•  Firecharacteristics–firelineintensity,rateofspread,fuelconsumption

•  Plumedynamics–smoketransportmaps,plumeheights

•  Emissions–massofcarbonreleasedintoatmosphere

•  Watersurfacetemperatures(secondaryproduct)

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Applications and services

•  AssistProvinces,TerritoriesandParksCanadawithfiremanagementby–  offeringmonitoringcoasttocoast–  activefiredetectionandmonitoringtoolforremoteregions–  supplyingdataforhotspotsandburnedareafortheNationalBurned

AreaComposite(NBAC)•  AssistsEnvironmentCanadaby

–  measuringFRPtoestimatetracegasandparticulateemissions–  providingmodelinputsforimprovedairqualityandsmoketransport

models

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National Burn Area Composite (NBAC)

Accesstoburnareaproductsavailablefromonesourceatthesametime

Ensurethebestavailableburnareaproductsacross-Canadaatanytime

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Thank you.