Assessment of deforestation in near real time over the Brazilian Amazon using multitemporal fraction images derived from terra MODIS

We present a methodology for rapidly assessing deforestation over the Amazon region needed for policy intervention. We use soil fraction images generated from Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) data at 250-m spatial resolution. Results showed reasonable agreement with higher resolution Landsat data (r(2) = 0.73) for our study area. MODIS data are promising for near real-time deforestation monitoring, previously not practical with Landsat data.