A data-mining approach to associating MISR smoke plume heights with MODIS fire measurements

Satellites provide unique perspectives on aerosol global and regional spatial and temporal distributions, and offer compelling evidence that visibility and air quality are affected by particulate matter transported over long distances. The heights at which emissions are injected into the atmosphere are major factors governing downwind dispersal. In order to better understand the environmental factors determining injection heights of smoke plumes from wildfires, we have developed a prototype system for automatically searching through several years of MISR and MODIS data to locate fires and the associated smoke plumes and to retrieve injection heights and other relevant measurements from them. We are refining this system and assembling a statistical database, aimed at understanding how injection height relates to the fire severity and local weather conditions. In this paper we focus on our working proof-of-concept system that demonstrates how machine-leaming and data mining methods aid in processing of massive volumes of satellite data. Automated algorithms for distinguishing smoke from clouds and other aerosols, identifying plumes, and extracting height data are described. Preliminary results are presented from application to MISR and MODIS data collected over North America during the summer of 2004. (c) 2006 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.