Simulation of fire detection by infrared imagers from geostationary satellites

•An end to end fire detection algorithm from geostationary satellite has been implemented.•The MSG SEVIRI & MTG FCI payloads IR bands NeDT & IFOV performance have been simulated.•A fire detection algorithm & the statistic of signal hidden in background have been simulated.•The minimum & maximum fire temperature & area are in agreement with literature.•A traceable link between instrument parameters and applications (fire detection) is established.

Forest fire detection in real time from geostationary satellite is very useful for early warning intervention and monitoring in all European countries. The use of infrared sensors is a well-known technique to detect high temperature events at sub-pixel level. An end to end simulation model quantitatively linking the user requirements with the instrument design parameters has been developed and applied to the European MSG SEVIRI imagery, allowing an evaluation of the minimum and the maximum detectable active fire area and temperature and giving results in agreement with literature data. A parametric analysis as a function of the instrument Instantaneous Field Of View has also been performed in order to evaluate preliminary results for the imager foreseen to be embarked in the European MTG platform. This end-to-end model can be useful to evaluate the capability of the fire detection for other satellite infrared payloads particularly during the phase 0-A of a space project when it is necessary to understand the possible impacts of the scientific requirements on the instrument sizing.