Abstract Coal fires are a persistent threat to major coal producing countries in the world. Alongside massive wastage of coal resources, coal fires pose enormous constraints to mining operations in adjacent areas. Beyond its dire denouement for a country's economy, coal fires pose potential risk to the environment, infrastructure and human health at local and regional scales. Owing to its dynamic nature and widespread occurrence, remote sensing provides the most cost-effective technology for mapping and monitoring of coal fires in India and the world over. This work presents a brief discussion on the principles of various remote sensing techniques and an in-depth review of the applications of remote sensing as a reliable tool to detect and monitor coal fires in India. While we review the capabilities and efficiencies of various remote sensing techniques, implemented since its inception in the late 1980s, we also highlight their limitations and advantages. Also, included are a broad overview of coal and coal fires in India, factors inducing them and their impact on the environment. Finally, we discuss the existing knowledge gaps, prospective challenges, urgent requirements and recommendations for extending the scope of remote sensing based coal fire investigations in the future.

中文翻译：

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印度煤火遥感：综述

摘要 煤火是世界主要产煤国的持续威胁。除了大量浪费煤炭资源外，煤火还对邻近地区的采矿作业造成巨大限制。除了对一个国家的经济造成可怕的后果之外，煤火还在地方和区域范围内对环境、基础设施和人类健康构成潜在风险。由于其动态特性和广泛发生，遥感为印度和世界各地的煤火测绘和监测提供了最具成本效益的技术。这项工作简要讨论了各种遥感技术的原理，并深入回顾了遥感作为检测和监测印度煤火的可靠工具的应用。虽然我们回顾了自 1980 年代后期开始实施以来实施的各种遥感技术的能力和效率，但我们也强调了它们的局限性和优势。此外，还包括对印度煤炭和煤火、诱发它们的因素及其对环境的影响的广泛概述。最后，我们讨论了现有的知识差距、潜在的挑战、紧迫的要求和未来扩大基于遥感的煤火调查范围的建议。