SENTINEL 2A red edge spectral indices suitability for discriminating burn severity
Abstract Fires are a problematic and recurrent issue in Mediterranean ecosystems. Accurate discrimination between burn severity levels is essential for the rehabilitation planning of burned areas. Sentinel 2A MultiSpectral Instrument (MSI) record data in three red edge wavelengths, spectral domain especially useful on agriculture and vegetation applications. Our objective is to find out whether Sentinel 2A MSI red edge wavelengths are suitable for burn severity discrimination. As study area, we used the 2015 Sierra Gata wildfire (Spain) that burned approximately 80 km 2 A Copernicus Emergency Management Service (EMS) grading map with four burn severity levels was considered as reference truth. Cox and Snell, Nagelkerke and McFadde pseudo R 2 statistics obtained by Multinomial Logistic Regression showed the superiority of red edge spectral indices (particularly, Modified Simple Ratio Red edge, Chlorophyll Index Red edge, Normalized Difference Vegetation Index Red edge) over conventional spectral indices. Fisher's Least Significant Difference test confirmed that Sentinel 2A MSI red edge spectral indices are adequate to discriminate four burn severity levels.
Int. J. Appl. Earth Obs. Geoinformation