Back to results
US 2026/0287736 A1Published application
Wildfire monitoring methods and system
AssigneeIceye Oy
InventorsAngel Johnsy, Penelope Kourkouli, Michael Wollersheim, Duhane Lam
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Loading patent…
Loading patent…
AssigneeIceye Oy
InventorsAngel Johnsy, Penelope Kourkouli, Michael Wollersheim, Duhane Lam
Estimating the term…
A method for monitoring wildfire progression is provided, comprising the steps: identifying an area (200) on the surface of Earth where a wildfire has started; instructing to acquire a first interferometric Synthetic Aperture Radar ‘SAR’ image pair of the area over a first observation period, wherein the wildfire remains active during the first observation period; receiving the first interferometric SAR image pair and creating an initial coherence map (600) based on the difference in phase of the first interferometric SAR image pair; determining, based on the initial coherence map (600), one or more areas of low coherence (601) indicative of a transition from a forested into a burnt area; instructing to acquire a second interferometric SAR image pair of the area over a second observation period, wherein the second observation period is subsequent the first observation period; receiving the second interferometric SAR image pair and creating a subsequent coherence map (610, 620, 630) based on the difference in phase of the second interferometric SAR image pair; and monitoring a change of the one or more areas of low coherence (601) based on the subsequent coherence map (610, 620, 630) indicative of a progression of the wildfire. Further, a ground station system for monitoring wildfire progression is provided.
A method for monitoring wildfire progression, comprising the steps:
The method of any preceding claim, wherein the first observation period and/or the second observation period are within a time interval of 72 hours, optionally 48 hours, more optionally 24 hours.
The method of any preceding claim, wherein the second interferometric pair is acquired during a time in which the wildfire remains active.
The method of any preceding claim, wherein the first and second interferometric pairs are obtained by one or more satellites operating in the X-Band range.
The method of any preceding claim, wherein the first interferometric pair and the second interferometric pair are obtained from different satellites;
The method of any preceding claim, wherein the first interferometric pair and the second interferometric pair are obtained from different imaging geometries.
The method of any preceding claim, wherein determining one or more areas of low coherence comprises determining a perimeter around the one or more areas of low coherence.
The method of any preceding claim, further comprising:
The method of any preceding claim, wherein the one or more areas of low coherence and/or the one or more subsequent areas of low coherence are highlighted to provide a visual representation of the progression of the fire and/or to identify hot spots, optionally using false colour.
The method of any preceding claim, wherein the coherence of forested areas is increased by a phase filter that reduces a phase resolution, reduces noise, and/or increases contrast in a coherence map formed from the first and/or second interferometric SAR image pair.
The method of any preceding claim, further comprising:
A ground station system for monitoring wildfire progression, wherein the ground station system comprises a computing system configured to perform the method of any preceding claim.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.