Regional Centre for Training in Aerospace Surveys (RECTAS), ObafemiAwolowo University Campus, PMB 5545, Ile-Ife, Nigeria
This research aims at analyzing the vegetation fires using satellite fire hotspots detected by MODIS sensor, the Landsat ETM and NigeriaSat1 imageries. MODIS hotspots were projected to UTM system with WGS84 as ellipsoid and datum. Spatial analyses carried out include the spatio-temporal distribution of fires spots through Kriging techniques and the correlation analysis between the Fire Irradiative Power and the Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI). Analyses reveal a spatial distribution of fire spots with a slight variation. Years 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2007, 2008 and 2009 recorded high number of vegetation fires above the annual average evaluated at 4317 hotspots. Pearson coefficient revealed the existence of a correlation between the NDVI and fire incidence. When the fire radiative power increases, the density and the greenness of the vegetation expressed by NDVI values, decreases. However, this negative correlation is low and more active in full dry season.