The Earth Observation and Wildfire Research Group is based at King’s College London, and led by Professor Martin Wooster. Our team holds leading roles in both the Leverhulme Centre for Wildfires, Environment and Society and the NERC National Center for Earth Observation (NCEO).
Our research
The research group conducts research on:
- Earth observation of biosphere-atmosphere interactions
- Landscape fire science, including wildfires and anthropocentric burning
The group's work encompasses many aspects of field/airborne/satellite remote sensing, environmental modelling, fieldwork and in situ and laboratory measurement and experimentation.
The group operates a Wildfire Testing Chamber and an Earth Observation Instrumentation and Calibration Lab outside London at Rothamsted Research. Our group also operates the NCEO Airborne Earth Observatory, which supports UK Environmental Science collects airborne remote sensing data using a state-of-the-art set of hyperspectral and broadband active and passive remote sensing instruments.
Our Partners
The National Center for Earth Observation is a distributed center of over 100 scientists from UK universities and research organisations, providing the UK’s Natural Environment Research Council (NERC) with national capability in Earth observation science – developing and applying ways to better understand and monitor the state of our planet through the exploitation of satellite instrumentation and more. Professor Wooster is one of NCEO’s Divisional Directors, and many research group members within King’s Earth Observation and Wildfire Research Group are also NCEO staff – providing expertise, technical support and datasets within NCEOs research projects and associated activities.
The Leverhulme Centre for Wildfires, Environment and Society is funded for ten-years by the Leverhulme Trust (2019-2029) – with the aim of helping to transform the scientific and practical understanding of wildfire through interdisciplinary research. It studies the drivers of landscape fire around the world, and how these and the impact that fire has on landscapes, the carbon cycle, air quality, health and other aspects of the Earth system might change with varying climate, human and environmental pressures. The Centre has Imperial College London and King’s College London as lead partners, and also incorporates staff and activity from Royal Holloway, University of London, and the University of Reading. Prof. Martin Wooster is an Associate Director of the Centre, and our research group receives funding from and works synergistically to support the Centre’s aims.