Global Validation of Geostationary Satellite Active Fire Products: GOES-16, HIMAWARI, and Meteosat Second Generation series

The recent launches of the new generation of geostationary weather satellites provides an opportunity for the establishment of a robust global network of geostationary fire data that can greatly complement existing polar orbiting satellite fire products. Among other benefits, geostationary satellites provide complete sampling of diurnal variations in fire activity. Using Landsat-8 Operational Land Imager (OLI) and Sentinel-2 Multispectral Instrument (MSI) as reference fire data, we validate active fire products derived from three geostationary satellite sensors: the Advanced Baseline Imager (ABI) on board the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Agency (NOAA) GOES-16 satellite (launched November 2016); the Advanced Himawari Imager (AHI) onboard the Japan Meteorological Agency's (JMA) Himawari-8 (launched October 2014) and Himawari-9 (launched November 2016) satellites; and the Spinning Enhanced Visible and Infra-Red Imager (SEVIRI), on board the European Space Agency's (ESA) Meteosat Second Generation (MSG) satellite series (multiple launch dates). The two primary algorithms associated with these geostationary data sets are the Fire Detection and Characterization (FDC) algorithm based on the heritage Wildfire Automated Biomass-Burning Algorithm (WFABBA) for the GOES-series, and the fire detection and characterization algorithm (FRP-PIXEL) for the Himawari and MSG series. Our standardized validation method allows for direct intercomparison between the complimentary active fire datasets. Our assessment of fire-product omission and commission errors builds on established validation protocols using near-coincident reference data derived from higher resolution Landsat-class imagery. Our validation results will be used to help support the development of a harmonized global multi-sensor active fire dataset to be integrated into the Global Wildfire Information System (GWIS).