REMOTE SENSING TECHNIQUE FOR DETECTION OF ZONE AND EXTENT

OF UNDERGROUND COAL MINE FIRE --- A REVIEW

Kanhaiya Mishra, Manish Kumar, Anil Kaiwart, J. Pandey, P. K. Mishra, and R. Lolarak *

ABSTRACT
The coal mine fires are considered as a major problem for the coal producing countries. In India, Jharia
coalfield is mainly affected by coal fire amongst all the coalfields. In case of underground coal mine, it
is not so smooth to estimate the zone and extent of coal mine fire. Remote sensing technique may show
its potentiality for detection of zone and extent of it by analyzing the spectral signatures received from
the land surface of the affected areas. Therefore, in the present paper, attempts have been made to
review the different detection techniques of mine fire through satellite and airborne remote sensing
images and discuss in detail. Keywords: Remote sensing, mine fire, thermal mapping, satellite

INTRODUCTION
The coal fulfils major percentage of energy requirement in
all over the world. Every year million tons of coal are lost
due to coal fire. The spontaneous heating of coal accounts
for up to 75-90% of coal fire and originates in goaf area,
abandoned mine, surrounding area of geological
disturbance and a coal pillar which has fractured (Ramlu,
2012). It goes without saying that contact among three
elements viz. fuel, oxygen and ignition source are required
for a fire to originate and propagate (Fig. 1).
Fire Triangle
Oxygen
Heat
Fire
Fuel
Fig.1: Fire triangle
Fire may also be generated due to variety of causes such
as spontaneous combustion, open flames, electricity,
friction, blasting, explosion etc. and are characterized by
traceable dynamic combustion. It spreads quickly in the
direction of ventilation. The occurrence of fire in underground
coal mines causes men and machinery loss. Apart from
these, loss of production from affected portion of mines,
land subsidence, cost in fire frightening and recovery of
sealed off area also put the mine management in loss.
Mine fire also produces toxic fumes like CO, CO2, H2S,
CH 4, which pollute the surrounding environment and
contributes towards the increase in greenhouse gases/
global warming (Bhattacharya and Reddy, 1994).
CSIR-Central Institute of Mining & Fuel Research, Dhanbad,
Jharkhand
Geominetech: The Indian Mineral Industry Journal
INDIAN AND GLOBAL SCENARIO OF COAL FIRE
In India, the energy derived from coal is about twice that of
energy derived from oil, while in the world coal derived energy
is about 30% lower than energy derived from oil (Ram and
Kiran, 2013). Jharia Coalfield (JCF) is the most affected
area by coal fire amongst the entire coalfield in India.
According to the National Centre for Atmospheric Research
in Boulder, Colorado, JCF fire forms atmospheric sulfate
aerosols which reduces the amount of sunlight reaches
the earth surface by captivating or spreading solar radiation
for Indian Territory. Ram and Kiran (2013) stated that in
2010, 68 fires were burning beneath 150 square kilo-metres
in JCF and rapidly destroying the prime source of energy
in India. In India, almost 1800 million tons of coals are
blocked below fire (Kumar et.al, 2010) while in china almost
200 million tons of coal are lost every year (Mukherjee
et.al, 1991; Wang, 2002). Department of Interior’s Office
of Surface Mining Enforcement and Reclamation report
says that, in California around 100 fires are burning beneath
nine states including, Kentucky, Pennsylvania and West
Virginia (Dan, 2010). Analysis of causes of coal fire shows
that pillar collapsing and shallow seam extraction by caving
without erecting stopping properly are the main causes of
Indian coal fire. Spontaneous heating on surface are mainly
in coal stocks and coal washeries. Bord and pillar mining
method without stowing shows much higher rate of coal
fire than proper stowing. As we know that propagation
rate of fire depends upon the exposed area of coal and its
friability. Different studies state that propagation rate of
fire is increasing successively 10-20 m per year (Pandey
et.al, 2015). Almost all coal producing countries such as
USA, China, Australia, Canada, Germany etc. is
experiencing coal fire (Gangopadhyay, 2007).
DETECTION OF COAL FIRE WITH REMOTE SENSING
The major problem in controlling underground coal fires is
determining their extent and direction of movement due to
a number of exterior factors like thickness of the rock and
soil cover over the coal bed. Remote sensing method may
55 Vol- 03 Iss-No02-APRIL-JUNE / ENTMS 2016
be an efficient technique for detecting hidden coal fires.
This method offers no physical contact with the target
object. The application of remote sensing in the field of
coal fire detection was first started in 1960s by America
(Wang, 2002). Slavecki (1964) was the first to test the
effectiveness of thermal infrared (TIR) for detecting coal
fires and stated that the TIR scanner could be used to
detect fires in coal beds and in refuse piles. Fisher and
Knuth (1968) briefly explain a TIR study of numerous coal
fires by the Pennsylvania Department of Mines and Mineral
Industries. According to the study of US Geological Survey
(Greene et al., 1969), TIR could detect coal fires at shallow
and intermediate depths (i.e. less than 30m below the
surface). They suggest that TIR could be successful for
identifying deeper coal fires only if they had been burning
for more than 10 years. Ellyett and Fleming (1974) describe
a TIR study conducted over the burning mountain coal fire
in New South Wales, Australia. This coal fire has been
known since at least 1829, and evidence (e.g., slag and
baked sediments) suggested that the fire had burned over
a distance of 6 km and so may have been burning for several
thousand years. The study of Panigrahi et.al (1995) gives
a relationship between thermal profile and depth of fire. As
per this study profile’s full width at its half intensity
approximately equal to one third of fire depth. Hong et al.
(1996) briefly described using airborne TIR and Landsat
TM band 6 to detect coal fires. They noted that during day
time, the data were acquired. The type of TIR sensor, the
surface morphology of area, and the extent and
temperature of any surface anomalies could all affect the
ability to detect coal fires. Vekerdy et al. (1999) used a
combination of satellite and airborne remote sensing
methods including TIR to detect coal fires in northern
China. These authors used high-resolution optical satellite
imagery, satellite TIR data, and satellite based microwave
data with airborne TIR imagery and aerial photography using
computer programs to obtain better results than could be
obtained from one system alone. Kumar et al. (2010) have
conducted study in the Jharia coalfield by Landset TM
images and obtained year wise distribution of surface fire
in Jharia coalfield. Detection of coal fire dynamics and
propagation direction from multi-temporal night time
(Wang, 2002) which are discussed in the subsequent
sections in detail.
SATELLITE REMOTE SENSING
It works on the principle of electromagnetic energy which
is based on the measurement of reflected energy coming
back to the measuring sensor after interacting with the
target object. The electromagnetic spectrum ranges from
very short wavelength cosmic rays to the long wavelength
of standard radio waves. The remote sensing sensors
record data only in selected discrete wavelength ranges of
the electromagnetic spectrum. These ranges are termed
as visible region, TIR regions and microwave region (Rencz
and Ryerson, 1999). The remote sensing sensors can
operate in very small wavelength ranges (narrow bands) or
can acquire data integrated over a large span of wavelengths
(broad band). When data is available in a few narrow spectral
bands, it is referred as multispectral remote sensing, as
the bands become narrower, it is said hyper spectral remote
sensing. All substances (targets) emanate energy and
can be seen from its emission spectra due to their thermal
conditions. The emission spectra also change
considerably as the temperature of the target changes.
Studies show that the underground coal mine fires which
tend to increase the temperature of overlying land surface
up to 150C, spectral region 8-14µm is ideal (Table 1).
However, for the fires with much higher temperature, the
SWIR is better. For more than 1000K of temperature, visible
and near infrared is well suited (Prakash et al., 1997;
Prakash and Gupta, 1999; Zhang et al. 2004, Quattrochi,
2009). Table 1 illustrates the different electromagnetic
spectral regions for detection of the zone and extent of
fire. Table 2 describes the different satellites used for the
studies of mine fire.
Table-1: Electromagnetic spectrum and their
significance in coal-fire studies (Courtesy Prakash and
Gens, 2011)
R e g io n o f W a v e le n g th S ig n ific a n c e in c o a l-fir e s tu d ie s
s p e c tr u m ra n g e
B lu e ( B ) 0 .4 – 0 .5 μ m W e ll s u ite d fo r m a p p in g a tm o s p h e r ic
h a z e , s m o k e fr o m fir e s .
N e a r i n f ra r e d 0 .7 – 1 .3 μ m C a te g o r iz e s o il by its m o is tu re

Landsat shortwave infrared (SWIR) and TIR data are done ( N IR ) c o n te n t.

Id e a ll y s u ite d to m ap v e g e ta tio n
by Huo et.al (2014) on the Rujigou Coalfield. Analysis of
d e n s it y, its h e a lth a n d s tr e s s .
coal fire dynamics in the Wuda syncline using in-situ
M id in fra r e d 3 .0 – 8 .0 μ m U s in g th e C O 2 a b s o r p t io n p e a k in
observations and Landsat-8 remote sensing data has been (M IR ) th is r e g io n to c h a ra c te r iz e an d
done by Zeyang et al. (2015). Wang et al. (2015) have q u a n tify th e lo c a ll y a n o m a lo u s C O 2
also conducted study by using multi resource remote c o n c e n tr a tio n n e a r c o a l fir e s .

sensing data for detecting and monitoring coal fires of S u ita b le fo r m o d e r a te ly h ig h -

te m p e r a tu r e m a p p in g .
Datong coalfield. Roy et al. (2015) have attempted to
T h e rm a l 8 .0 – 1 4 μ m Id e a l fo r m a p p in g s lig h t s u r fa c e
understand the dynamics of coal fires using Landsat 8 in fr a r e d te m p e r a tu r e in c re a s e a s s o c ia te d
thermal infrared sensor (TIRS) data and historical coal fire w ith u n d e r g ro u n d fire s .
distribution data.  Remote sensing technique is used since E x te n s iv e ly used in u n d er g r o un d
1980 through aircraft (airborne remote sensing) and c o a l-fir e d e te c tio n , m a p p in g ,
m o n i to r in g a n d d e p th e s tim a tio n .
satellites (satellite remote sensing) in Indian subcontinent
M ic r o w a v e 5 5 .7 c m – 1 m Id e a l f o r m e a s u rin g s u b s id e n c e d u e
to c o a l m in in g a n d c o a l fir e s .

Geominetech: The Indian Mineral Industry Journal 56 Vol- 03 Iss-No02-APRIL-JUNE / ENTMS 2016
 Table-2: Satellites for coal-fire studies (Courtesy Reflection Aureole Mapping
Prakash and Gens, 2011) Underground coal fires causes heating of overlying rock
Satellite/ Satellite Characteristics Significance in and soil layers. The heating removes moisture from the
sensor category coal-mining and
soil. The dryer soil and high temperature are adverse to
the development of vegetation, which first becomes
coal-fire studies harassed and ultimately dies. This process results in small
AVHRR Operational; Acquire data in Can detect broad halos of nearby dry and highly reflective barren areas. These
MODIS Coarse visible through regions of intense halos, called reflection aureoles or barrenness aureoles
(Gupta and Prakash, 1998; Prakash and Gens, 2011), can
resolution TIR; spatial burning and for be detected by analyzing visible, infrared and TIR images.
resolution varies mapping smoke
from 250 m in and haze over
visible to 1.1 km in large study
TIR. areas.
ASTER Operational; Acquire data in Most extensively
Landsat Medium visible through used for surface
resolution TIR; spatial and underground
resolution varies fire detection, fire
from 15 m in temperature
panchromatic estimation, and
mode to 120 m in its change
TIR. detection.
Fig. 2: Photograph of Jharia coalfield showing surface
cracks (Courtesy Prakash and Gens, 2011)

Satellite images figure out the energy received by the
sensor in terms of quantized digital numbers (DNs), directly
linked to the spectral radiance of the target (Kumar et al.
2010). This relationship between the DN value and the
spectral radiance is well defined for all spectral bands of
an individual satellite. Once the spectral radiance value is
known and a spectral emissivity, ۑ is assigned for the
target, radiance temperature T can be calculated by
inverting Planck’s law. This radiance temperature (T) always
lowers than actual temperature of the target (TA) and is
given by:
T = ۑ 0.25 TA (1)
METHODOLOGY OF REMOTE SENSING
There are three methods mainly used for satellite remote
sensing as described below:
Crack Density Mapping:
Instigation of heat from underground fire causes growth of
thermal cracking in the overlying rock layer (Fig. 2) (Prakash
and Gens, 2011). The density and orientation of cracks
(thin, massive, inclined, vertical etc.) depend upon the
depth and intensity of underground fire. Occurrence of fires
at shallow depth causes more surface cracking, while the
deeper fires result in more massive cracks. High spatial
resolution remote sensing images are an excellent source
for generating comprehensive maps of surface cracks
(Prakash and Gens, 2011).
Geometric Modeling for Determining Fire Depth
In this method, modeling is done for determination of depth
of fire based on location of a surface thermal anomaly and
its unique sectional profile received from satellite. The
simplest and crudest method for fire-depth estimation is
geometric method (Saraf et al., 1995). According to this
method, if the thermal anomaly of the affected site and the
dip of the proximally outcropping coal seam are known,
then a simple geometric construction can help to give an
approximate estimation of fire depth. Peng et al. (1997)
expanded the geometric model to include more geological
(stratigraphic and structural) information of the site under
consideration. Prakash et al. (1995) have given assumption
of heat transfer in which they informed that the convection
component of the heat transmitted from the subsurface to
surface was three to five times greater than heat transfer
by conduction alone. Rosema et al. (1999) modeled the
convective component as a single chimney system.
AIRBORNE THERMAL INFRARED IMAGING
In airborne remote sensing, TIR instrumentation is mounted
in an airplane, which flies over the study area at a
programmed altitude above average ground level. As every
material emits energy above absolute zero in thermal
infrared range of electromagnetic spectrum
(Gangopadhyay, P. K., 2007), therefore, it can be used to
detect the radiant flux of the land surface (Sabins, 1997).
Variations in radiant flux from the ground surface are caused

Geominetech: The Indian Mineral Industry Journal 57 Vol- 03 Iss-No02-APRIL-JUNE / ENTMS 2016
due to the different absorption capacity of solar radiation
by rocks and other surface materials and subsequently
store this energy as heat (thermal capacity) and then emit
it back into the atmosphere in the TIR range (Kahle, 1980;
Sabins, 1997). The difference in radiant flux occurring on
the land surface is shown in TIR imagery as variations in
the brightness (Loughlin, 1990). Vice (2007) has also used
this method for geothermal exploration.
CONCLUSION
The occurrence of fire in a coal mine is considered as a
global problem. This not only causes loss of reserve,
damaging of land surface, burning of cap rock but also
emits toxic and greenhouse gases that causes global
warming. As discussed in the preceding sections, satellite
remote sensing technique can be an efficient and cost-
effective for the detection of coal fires and used from around
50 years. The satellite thermal images received in different
electromagnetic bands help to understand the zone and
extent of mine fire. Several advances have been made since
inception. However, it is seen that combination of satellite
and airborne remote sensing methods including TIR can
be most effective and reliable for detection of mine fires.
This study aims to highlight various techniques of remote
sensing and researches done in this area.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
The authors are thankful to the Director, CSIR-Central
Institute of Mining and Fuel Research (CSIR-CIMFR),
Dhanbad, India for his encouragement and support as well
as permitting the author for publishing and presenting the
paper. The author is also thankful to the Scientists/
Technical Officers of CSIR-CIMFR for their input and support
to prepare the paper. The views expressed in this paper
are that of the authors and not necessarily of the
organization they belong to.
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