Detection of coal mine fires in the Jharia coal field using NOAA/AVHRR data

Coal fires represent a major problem in most coal producing countries. The Jharia coal field (JCF) has been affected by surface and sub-surface coal fires since the beginning of mining in the region in the mid 1800s. Currently research is focused on using freely available satellite data such as NOAA/AVHRR, MODIS ( moderate resolution imaging spectrometer) etc for various applications. The potential of National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) Advanced Very High Resolution Radiometer (AVHRR) images for detecting coal fires and monitoring their progress and associated environmental hazards and risks to the local communities in the JCF has been reviewed. Three models, namely the thresholding model, the contextual model and the fuel mask model have been used to determine the potential fire pixels. Due to the coarse resolution of the NOAA/AVHRR data it was essential to determine sub-pixel fires as well. Results of this study have been verified using the MODIS active fires product, MOD14 ( Terra). We have used ten images of NOAA/AVHRR for the year 2004 in this study, and the results are in broad agreement with the ground truth data.