Satellite Data Applications for Fire Science
Burn Severity Assessment With Satellite Remote Sensing![]() Each year, wildland fires burn millions of acres of America's forests, shrub lands, and grasslands. Vaiations in burn severity and effects of fire are functions of landscape and ecoswystem diversity. Understanding such variations in relationship to land management practices requires the collection of large quantities of geospatial data following major fires. Systematic satellite mapping with calibrated algorithms can deliver reliable information about burn perimeter and variations in burn severity.
The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) is responding to fire science and management communities' needs for techniques, data, and map products in support of cohesive fire management prioritization and planning across the country. These burn severity data products can be used along with the National Elevantion Dataset (NED), available from the USGS EROS Data Center at http://gisdata.usgs.net/ned/
NPS-USGS National Burn Severity Mapping ProjectA cooperative project between the National Park Service and the U.S. Geological Survey has developed the capability to routinely map burn severity patterns and changes over time within a fire and deliver standardized map products to NPS park managers and fire ecologists. Research on the Satellite Estimation of Burn SeverityThe Joint Fire Science Program is supporting a research activity on satellite mapping of burn severity. This research is highly relevant to both science and land management communities, as it seeks to evaluate a robust, consistent burn-severity mapping algorithm for baseline inventory and mapping. By validating the mapping algorithm in different ecosystems throughout the country, with different fire histories, and vegetation effects over time, we ensure a sound science basis for our overall goal of an operational, standardized burn area mapping in support of land management and scientific investigation. Current Fire Mapping ActivitiesLandsat-Based Historical Fire Atlas and Burn Severity Mapping: Mesa Verde National Park
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Burn Mapping Application |