SMOS L-VOD shows that post-fire recovery of dense forests is slower than what is depicted with X- and C-VOD and optical indices

Abstract. Anthropogenic climate change is now considered to be one of the main factors causing an increase in both frequency and severity of wildfires. These fires are prone to release substantial quantities of CO₂ in the atmosphere and to destroy natural ecosystems while reducing biodiversity. Depending on the ecosystem and climate regime, fires have distinct triggering factors and impacts. To better analyse and describe fire impact on different biomes, we investigated pre and post fire vegetation anomalies at global scale. The study was performed using several remotely sensed quantities ranging from optical vegetation indices (the enhanced vegetation index (EVI)) to vegetation opacities obtained at several microwave wavelengths (X-band, C-band, and L-band vegetation optical depth (X-VOD, C-VOD, and L-VOD)), ranging from 2 to 20 cm. It was found that C- and X-VOD are mostly sensitive to fire over low vegetation areas (grass and small bushes) or over tree leaves; while L-VOD depicts better the fire impact on tree trunks and branches. As a consequence, L-VOD is probably a better way of assessing fire impact on biomass. The study shows that L-VOD can be used to monitor fire affected areas as well as post-fire recovery, especially over densely vegetated areas.