Remote Sensing and Wildland Fire Science

Question 1

Remote sensing

Answer 1

Collecting information about an object without being in direct physical contact with it

Question 2

Applications in wildland fire

Answer 2

• Forest fire events
• Danger forecast
• Vegetation regeneration
• Potential soil erosion estimates
• Emission assessment
• Land cover damage assessment
• Burnt area maps
• Fire detection

Question 3

3 principal areas of research

Answer 3

• Fire damage
• Fire risk/severity prediction
• Fire detection/recovery

Question 4

Infrared

Answer 4

• Reflects electromagnetic light to tell the user what object is there
• RGB Image - creates a pixel with red, green, and blue light reflected
• We mostly focus on infrared section for fire because it can detect heat
• Low red in a severe burn, high red in a light burn

Question 5

Types of resolution

Answer 5

Spatial Resolution: smallest spatial measurement

Temporal Resolution: frequency of measurement

Spectral Resolution: number of independent channels

Radiometric Resolution: sensitivity of the detectors

Question 6

Landsat

Answer 6

Satellite that measures patterns of what happens on the ground - most frequent and updated images of the earth’s surface

Question 7

Fire intensity vs. burn severity

Answer 7

Fire intensity: amount of energy or heat release
per unit time or area
- dictates burn severity

Burn severity: effect of a fire on
ecosystem properties, often
defined by the degree of
mortality of vegetation
- degree to which a site has
been altered or disrupted by
fire; loosely, a product of fire
intensity and residence time

Question 8

Mapping burn severity

Answer 8

We can use remote sensing to map burn severity from space
- Burned area uses imagery to assess the extent of impacts on
vegetation for a particular fire event
- Burn severity compares burned area information to pre-fire imagery to assess relative magnitude of burn impacts

Question 9

Normalized burn ratio

Answer 9

Used to identify burned areas

Question 10

Differenced Normalized Burn Ratio

Answer 10

Provides a comparison of pre- and postfire conditions to determine severity

Question 11

Drivers of Wildfire Behavior

Answer 11

1. Pre-fire Climate (winter snowpack, spring/summer temperature, and precipitation)
2. Weather Conditions During Fire (temperature, precipitation, and active winds)
3. Forest Composition (certain vegetation is more or less flammable; inhibit or spread fire)
4. Forest Fuel Density (how dense is vegetation pre-fire; generally more fuel = more fire)
5. Topographic Factors (static landscape properties that influence all of the above factors)

Question 12

Thermal remote sensing

Answer 12

Branch of remote sensing
that deals with the acquisition, processing and interpretation of
data acquired primarily in the Thermal Infra Red (TIR) region of
the Electromagnetic (EM) spectrum

• Measure the radiations
  from the surface of the target (vs. Optical Remote
  Sensing where we measure the radiations by the
  target under consideration)

Question 13

Fire counts

Answer 13

Number of hotspots (or pixels) detected by a satellite/sensor in a certain region of
interest over a fixed period

Question 14

Methods for quantifying fire

Answer 14

Remote sensing offers methods for quantifying fire:
- Damage
- Risk
- Severity
- Location or prevalence

Question 15

These quantified products inform:

Answer 15

• Burn Area Emergency Response
• Vegetation and fire management for mitigating wildfire
  hazards
• Urban planning in the WUI
• Tactical fire fighting response

Question 16

Spectral reflectance

Answer 16

Look at properties of healthy vegetation pre fire, then post fire, then get difference in reflectance properties of healthy vegetation pre vs. post fire