Release of Collection 2.1 of S3 NRT Fire Radiative Power

Collection 2.1 is a direct extension of the original Baseline Collection 2.0, released on 9 December 2021.

Main updates are:

• Improved detection of medium fires in Africa and South-America during day-time.
• Improved day-time false alarm removal thanks to consolidated sun-glint, cloud, and large solar panel photovoltaic detection tests.
• Systematic removal (by precaution) of pixels affected by saturated radiances in red and near-infrared channels (S2 and S3).
• Activation of FRP confidence classes during day-time (only night-times were active until now).
• Minor improvement during night-time: additional cloud-edge test allowing a small reduced number of false alarms.
• Improved FRP SWIR (gas flares) uncertainty computation.
• Implementation of the Product Baseline ID (FRP_NRT.002.01.00) in the global netCDF attributes and manifest file.
• The SLSTR f1 footprint area across the swath has been updated, for both Sentinel-3 A and B, thanks to recent investigations carried out by RAL Space in the frame of the Sentinel-3 Mission Performance Centre (MPC) funded by Copernicus and procured by ESA.

Quality flags, and confidence class methodologies remain identical. FRP categories remain unchanged (Standard — reported on the original S* grid, Alternative — reported on the F1 grid, SWIR at 1km and 500m). Product format remains unchanged at this stage.

These evolutions follow analyses performed by EUMETSAT expert scientists, feedback from operational users, and were presented to the SLSTR Quality Working Group (QWG). EUMETSAT continues its collaboration with the Copernicus Atmosphere Monitoring Service (CAMS) to prepare the future operational assimilation of SLSTR NRT FRP data by the Global Fire Assimilation Service (GFAS) in partnership with the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts (ECMWF) and King’s College London (KCL).

More information related to the Collection 2.1 can be found in the Product Notice (available soon).

EUMETSAT continues to work on regular improvements of the daytime FRP detection and computation, which remains at the scientific maturity of ‘Preliminary Operational’, while the night-time component is labelled as ‘Operational’. EUMETSAT strongly invites users to provide feedback on this Collection 2.1. The extension towards Collection 2.2 is already in preparation for Autumn 2023, with the plan to upgrade in-depth the product format/content and apply a significant size reduction. In view of this, a user consultation process is in progress.

The Copernicus Sentinel-3 (CS3) NRT L2 FRP product is produced by the reference 'Optimized Fire Radiative Power' (OFRaP-CS3) processor, dedicated to processing SLSTR data, upgraded as version 3.1, developed by EUMETSAT on behalf of the European Commission (EC), and operated by the EUMETSAT operational Sentinel-3 ground segment.

For more information or to provide feedback on the new Collection 2.1, contact our User Service Helpdesk.