Remote sensing fire and fuels in southern California

Abstract

Airborne remote sensing at infrared wavelengths has the potential to quantify large-fire properties related to energy release or intensity, residence time, fuel-consumption rate, rate of spread, and soil heating. Remote sensing at a high temporal rate can track fire-line outbreaks and acceleration and spotting ahead of a fire front. Yet infrared imagers and imaging spectrometers typically used for earth remote sensing are saturated by—and incapable of measuring—the very bright infrared light that radiates from wildland fires. The Forest Service, Pacific Southwest Research Station, and its partners have addressed this problem by developing the FireMapper thermal-imaging radiometer for quantitative, highresolution measurements of wildland fires. FireMapper has been applied to produce and disseminate accurate visualizations of large-fire activity, during active burning periods and for multiple fires, in near real-time. Practical extension of measurements by the FireMapper to prediction of fire behavior on time scales from hours to days requires highly resolved information on fuels and wind across landscapes and changes to the basic Rothermel formulation for fire spread. Combined sampling in the field and by multispectral remote sensing for the 2006 Esperanza Fire have demonstrated that the latter may provide an improved means for acquiring the needed fuels data.

Citation

Riggan, P.J.; Wolden, L.G.; Tissell, R.G.; Weise, D.R.; Coen, J. 2011. Remote sensing fire and fuels in southern California. In Wade, D.D.; Robinson, M.L. (eds) Proceedings of the 3rd Fire Behavior and Fuel Conference, Oct. 25-29,2010, Spokane, Washington, USA. International Association of Wildland Fire, Birmingham, Alabama, USA. 14 p.