Assessment of the effect of phenophases on forest burnt area mapping using multi-temporal MODIS data

Fire is one of the most contributive factors to forest ecosystem disturbances. Many researches on burnt area detection have been carried out. This paper discusses the change of forest characters before and after fires in different phenophases and several burnt scar detection methods are implemented to confirm the influence of phenophases on forest burnt scar detection based on multi-temporal Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer(MODIS) data. Preliminary results show that burnt area detection methods based on time series MODIS vegetation indices(VI) products carry out reliable result while mapping burned scar caused by fire that occurred on and after maturity days, but do not give very fine performance while detecting burnt scar caused by fire occurred before green-up days, except in the case that the fire is fatal to forest.