Monitoring Wildland Fire Using Remote Sensing

The Fire Ecology Program has been conducting research funded by the Joint Fire Sciences Program and National Parks Service to improve methods for estimating the area and severity of prescribed fires and wildfires using satellite remote sensing. Research was conducted by GIS Fire Analyst Joshua Picotte, who is currently employed by USGS EROS in Sioux Falls, SD. Many of the improvements made through this research have been adopted by the inter-federal agency Monitoring Trends in Burn Severity (MTBS) program that aims to monitor wildfires and large prescribed burns throughout the nation. Much of Josh's work has focused on gathering, checking, and designing databases for remotely sensed burn data from throughout the southeastern U.S.

Prescribed fires on Tall Timbers Research Station detected using remote sensing.

 

References:   

Picotte, J. and K.M. Robertson.  Validation of National Burn Severity Mapping techniques within the Apalachicola National Forest. [Presentation in PDF format].

Picotte, J.J. and K.M. Robertson. 2010. Remote sensing of wildland fire burned area in southeastern U.S. Coastal Plain habitats. Tall Timbers Fire Ecology Conference Proceedings 24:86-93.

Picotte, J.J. and K.M. Robertson. 2009. Validation of remote sensing of burn severity in southeastern U.S. Coastal Plain community types. International Journal of Wildland Fire In Press.

Tall Timbers Research Notes and E-News Articles:

• Remote sensing of burn severity, December 2006
• Remote Sensing of Fire Effects, June 2009
• Sizing Up Burns with Satellites, August 2009