Conjunctive Use of Landsat-8 OLI and MODIS Data for Delineation of Burned Areas

For regional-level monitoring of burned areas, Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) MCD64A1 and MCD45A1 products have been operationally used. However, because of their coarser spatial resolution, such products do not allow for detection of small patches (<50 ha) of burned areas, which are very important for modeling gas emissions. In order to bridge this gap, we undertook a study to evaluate the synergy of MCD64A1 and Landsat-8 Operational Land Imager (OLI) data for delineating burned areas in part of the mountainous terrain of the Himalayas, northern India. The approach involves generating a differenced normalized burn ratio image from Landsat-8 OLI data before and after fire events, refining the burned areas thus delineated using the MCD64A1 burned-area product and field data, and estimating accuracy. An overall mapping accuracy of 90.0% was achieved using Landsat-8 OLI data. Inclusion of the MODIS MCD64A1 burned-area product resulted in marginal improvement in overall accuracy (to 94.0%).