An evaluation of different bi-spectral spaces for discriminating burned shrub-savannah

Abstract

We report on the numerical separation of burned and unburned vegetation classes using different bi-spectral spaces, based on the analysis of spectroradiometric data collected in situ and convolved to five spectral bands at red to mid-infrared (MIR) wavelengths. A combination of two MIR bands was found to have strong spectral separation of burned and unburned samples. Using these bands, a spectral index was formulated which is highly sensitive to spectral changes due to burning and relatively insensitive to intrinsic variability. Results have implications for the remote sensing of burned shrub-savannah using bands available on high- and low-spatial resolution sensors, in particular, Landsat TM and MODIS.