Geology Reference
In-Depth Information
moderate depth coal fires. Several of these studies indicated that to be used effectively, the TIR surveys needed to
be conducted in the early morning hours (i.e., predawn) and the imagery needed to be carefully interpreted because
a number of surface conditions could affect the imagery.
Early studies by Greene et al. (1969), Dierks et al. (1971), and Kim and Chaiken (1993) suggested that TIR surveys
were not useful if the fire was deeper than 30 m. This seems to have discouraged the use of TIR imaging for
studying coal fires because fewer studies on the use of TIR were published from the early 1970s until about 1993.
Poorer resolution and temperature sensitivity of many early instruments may be part of the reason for the lack of
detection of deeper coal fires. However, both Shallenberger and Elick had access to TIR surveys conducted in the
early 1980s over Centralia, so the lack of papers may be due to little interest in publishing rather than a lack of the
use of TIR.
Much of the more recent work has continued to use TIR for locating and delineating coal fires (e.g., Gielisch,
2007). However, other studies (e. g., Shallenberger, 1993; Hong et al., 1996; Peng et al., 1997; and Zhang et al.,
1999) have shown that TIR imaging can be used to go beyond detection of coal fires and attempted to determine
the depth and/or rate of advance of the coal fire. These later studies usually used a combination of remote sensing
methods rather than just TIR alone.
Interesting new developments are the studies by Prakash et al. (1995) and Prakash and Berthelote (2007)
demonstrating a method that takes data from two separate TIR surveys to estimate the depth of a coal fire.
Zhang et al. (2007) described a second method for determining the depth of a coal fire by using ground-based TIR
surveys and a point-source inversion model.
Acknowledgments
T
he author thanks Dave Miller of Pennsylvania State University, Hazleton, for his review of this chapter and Glenn
Stracher of East Georgia College for his help and direction in preparing this work. Lee Miller at Pennsylvania State
University, Schuylkill, assisted with illustrations. The library staff at Pennsylvania State University, Hazelton,
Schuylkill, and the Earth and Mineral Sciences Library at Pennsylvania State University, University Park, assisted
in the acquisition of numerous references. Peter Linehan of Pennsylvania State University, Mount Alto, provided
the Centralia CIR photo. I also thank Dr. Shelton Alexander (emeritus) of Pennsylvania State University,
University Park, for our discussion about the Shallenberger senior thesis and my wife, Beth, for her patience
while I worked on this project.
Important Terms
airborne thermal infrared
instantaneous field of view
coal fires
thermal infrared
color infrared imaging
thermal infrared imaging
forward looking infrared
References
Andrup-Henriksen, G., Prakash, A., Blake, D.R., 2007. Estimation of gas emissions from shallow subsurface
coal fires in Jharia coalfield, India, using FLIR data and coal fire gas analysis. Geological Society of
America Abstracts with Programs, vol. 39, no. 6, p. 298, http://gsa.confex. com/gsa/2007AM/finalprogram/
abstract_132434.htm (accessed September, 2009).
Bakker, P., Church, D.J., Feuchtwanger, T.F., Grootenboer, J., Lee, C.A., Longshaw, T.G., et al., 1978. Some
practical applications of thermal infrared linescanning. Min. Mag. October, 398
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399, 401, 403, 405, 407, 409,
411, and 413.
Dierks, H.A., Whaite, R.H., Harvey, A.H., 1971. Three mine fire control projects in Northeastern Pennsylvania.
U. S. Bureau of Mines Information Circular 8524, Washington, D. C.
