During the Southern Africa Regional Science Initiative 2000 (SAFARI 2000) experiment (conducted from August 17 to September 25, 2000) several research aircraft were deployed to obtain remote and in situ measurements of the properties of the atmosphere and surface. Instruments that simulate the capabilities of current and future satellite sensors were flown on the NASA ER-2 aircraft at an altitude of approximate 20 km. Included in this suite of instruments was the Scanning-High spectral resolution Interferometer Sounder (S-HIS).

Fires have an obvious impact on the ecology of a region and are an important component of land management in certain regions. Approaches to detecting fires using satellite observations have concentrated on using multi-spectral imagery at visible, 3.9, 10.7, and 12 micron wavelengths to identify and catalogue fire. In this study, we demonstrate and validate an approach to fire detection that uses high-spectral resolution measurements around 2400 cm-1 (4.2 microns) combined with imager data. The fire detection approach is demonstrated and the fire detection feature explained using radiative transfer calculations. The fraction of the S-HIS field of view containing fire, hot air over a cooler surface, and the undisturbed background was estimated by fitting the shape and amplitude of the observed fire-signature to that determined from calculation.