This week, Mallon Technology colleague, Calvin McCoy, successfully delivered a presentation to the delegates in attendance at the INSPIRE Conference 2017.
The conference took place over four 2 days in two countries, with delegates in attendance from across the European Union. The aim of this year’s conference was to contribute to the implementation of the INSPIRE Directive by 2020, with a focus on incentives for strengthening cross–border and cross–sector cooperation among all stakeholders at a national, regional and local level.
Calvin’s presentation was delivered on the 3rd day of the conference and was titled; ‘Examining the Applicability of Sentinel–1 Data for Identifying Wildfires and Burn Scars on the Irish Landscape’. Calvin has been using Sentinel–1 SAR (radar) data to identify wildfires instead of the optical imagery gathered from Sentinel–2 and Landsat–8. This is due to the fact that Ireland is consistently covered in clouds which SAR data is able to see through, unlike optical imagery.
Using SAR data to detect wildfires is still in its infancy and Calvin’s presentation examines the application of SAR data and the results achieved to date. As stated by Calvin, “SAR data is far more complex than optical imagery, and can be much more difficult to work with, but we have gained some interesting results from some of the preliminary work we have undertaken”.
If you were unable to attend the INSPIRE Conference 2017 and would like to view Calvin’s presentation then it can be accessed at the bottom of this article. Alternatively, please get in touch to learn more about our GIS and Remote Sensing services at: info@mallontechnology.com
