"(Consistent and accurate fire science) data are not yet available to make informed decisions and to measure progress" - General Accounting Office Report 02-259, January 2002

Satellite remote sensing research and applications are essential for providing required data for mapping fire fuels, assessing fire effects, monitoring fire danger, and measuring progress in implementing the National Fire Plan. Land management agencies, scientific communities, and citizenry affected by wildland fires can benefit from research and development of consistent and accurate geospatial fire data, maps, and assessment produced at various scales.

Fire is an integral part of ecosystem functions and processes. The need to develop spatial information and technology lies in a fire's natural cycle: fire danger and live fire monitoring, post-fire mapping of burn scars and analysis of fire effects, fire fuels characteristics and mapping. These activities form the core of of a strategy for the USGS EROS Data Center fire research and development.

As a remote sensing agency, the USGS EROS Data Center is using its expertise and capabilities for the following key areas of fire research and development:

• Fire Fuel Mapping - Satellite mapping of vegetation parameters for national fire fuels assessment
• Joint Fire Science Program Fire Fuel Mapping Research
• LANDFIRE Project
• Fire Danger Monitoring - Satellite monitoring and forecasting of fire danger over large areas
• Burn Severity Assessment - Satellite mapping and analysis of burn severity and other fire effects
• Validation
• NPS-USGS National Burn Severity Mapping Project