Monitoring coal fires using remotely sensed data in coalfields of northwestern China

摘要

China is one of the countries with a vast coal resource in the world. However, the coal mines in China are seriously endangered by coal fires. About 100-200 million tons of coal is being lost because of coal fires each year. Though the problem of coal fires is long standing and not only limited in China, little has been done for regular monitoring of these fires based on remotely sensed data. Some researchers used day-time thermal images from Landsat TM band 6 to monitor coal fires. In this paper multi-temporal day-time and nighttime thermal images of coal fields in northwestern China are used to provide an overview of the changes in spatial location and scope of fires with time.