RETRIEVAL OF FUEL MOISTURE CONTENT FROM HIMAWARI-8 PRODUCT: TOWARDS REAL-TIME WILDFIRE RISK ASSESSMENT

Fuel moisture content (FMC) is a critical factor in assessing wildfire risk and its behaviour. Traditional field measurement of this variable is time-consuming and is impossible to extend to large-scale and dynamic applications. The canopy water has strong absorption characteristic in near and shortwave infrared spectra, allowing the near-real-time, multi-temporal and -spatial estimation of the FMC from remotely sensed data available. During last decade, numerous statistic-or physical model-based studies were carried out for the estimation of this variable. As FMC is responsive to weather variations, diurnal determination of this variable is essential for wildfire early-warning. With the launch of Himawari-8 in 2014, 10 mins images are available from this satellite, making real-time retrieval of the FMC achievable. Thus, this is the first study to retrieve diurnal FMC from Himawari-8 images, with the purpose for real-time wildfire risk assessment in near future.