Measuring fire spread rates from repeat pass airborne thermal infrared imagery

Douglas A. Stow; Philip J. Riggan; Emanual A. Storey; Lloyd L. Coulter

doi:10.1080/2150704X.2014.967882

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Measuring fire spread rates from repeat pass airborne thermal infrared imagery

Formally Refereed

Authors:

Douglas A. Stow, Philip J. Riggan, Emanual A. Storey, Lloyd L. Coulter

Year:

2014

Type:

Scientific Journal

Station:

Pacific Southwest Research Station

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.1080/2150704X.2014.967882

Source:

Remote Sensing Letters. 5(9): 803-812

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Abstract

The objective is to evaluate procedures for direct measurement of fire spread rates (FSRs) based on archived repeat pass airborne thermal infrared (ATIR) imagery and to identify requirements for more refined measurements of FSR and environmental factors that influence FSR. Flaming front positions are delineated on sequential FireMapper ATIR images captured at relatively short repeat intervals enabling fire spread vectors and units to also be delineated. This approach provides the only means for estimating FSR for wildfires at spatial scales in the order of 10¹–10³ m and timescales from 10² to 10⁵ s. Magnitudes of estimated FSR from the time sequential ATIR approach for the 2002 Williams fire in southern California tested here are reasonable, given the fire conditions are within the range of rates reported in the literature for wildland fires in Mediterranean shrublands.

Keywords

active fire, image coregistration, thermal infrared, wildfire

Citation

Stow, Douglas A.; Riggan, Philip J.; Storey, Emanual A..; Coulter, Lloyd L. 2014. Measuring fire spread rates from repeat pass airborne thermal infrared imagery. Remote Sensing Letters. 5(9): 803-812.