ASSESSMENT OF THE DISCRIMINATION ABILITY OF MERIS SPECTRAL DATA FOR BURNED AREA MAPPING USING ROC CURVES

Traditionally, the selection of the most appropriate bands to classify the target cover was supported by statistical indices that measured the discrimination ability of the spectral bands based on the Gaussian distribution assumption. However, that assumption might not be fulfilled in every instance. In this study we applied a non-parametric test (receiver operating characteristic, ROC) to measure the discrimination ability of MERIS sensor spectral bands and derived spectral indices to classify burned areas. The discrimination potential of each band was computed from the post-fire image, and from the temporal difference of the images. In both cases, the sources of confusion between burned areas and other covers were identified. The bands with higher discrimination ability were the NIR bands and the best indices were eta, GEMI, BAI, alpha B8, alpha B10, DGEMI and DBAI.