Overview of how remote sensing is used by the wildland fire community Presented to the ASEN 6210 Remote Sensing Seminar on 2 18 04 by Jeff Baranyi ESRI Denver Reported by Gary Fager Images are from the speaker s PowerPoint presentation The presentation addressed the following topics Sensors o Satellite AVHRR MODIS LANDSAT QuickBird Ikonos o Aerial Phoenix NASA UAV s Others Applications Example Uses o Response Incident mapping Geospatial Multi agency Coordination Group GeoMAC Other Resources o Recovery Burn area rehabilitation Flood potential o Mitigation Vegetation health and classification LANDFIRE This presentation focused on the various remote sensing platforms being used by the wildland fire community for response recovery and mitigation functions Much of the presentation dealt with how the remote sensing applications integrate with other applications such as GIS and Web based map servers to provide products to fire managers planners and the public Sensors Satellite sensors The satellite platforms highlighted were AVHRR MODIS LANDSAT QuickBird and Ikonos The AVHRR and MODIS satellites have been fundamental to the fire community due to their temporal resolutions AVHRR Advanced Very High Resolution Radiometer has twice daily coverage with a spatial resolution of 1 1 km at nadir and global coverage AVHRR has been used for monitoring large active fires The spatial resolution of the satellite becomes an issue even for large fires due to panoramic distortion if the areas being imaged are not close to nadir The Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectrometer MODIS is also being used for monitoring fires using both VNIR and Thermal bands The MODIS satellite makes four daily passes and also has global coverage View of the recent California fires from MODIS LANDSAT specifically LANDSAT 7 was mentioned as another resource although the 16 day return interval was cited as being problematic for use in fire response applications An example of a fire perimeter map was shown which was compiled using LANDSAT data QuickBird and Ikonos were discussed as examples of high resolution multispectral sensors used for a variety of projects Examples cited were vegetation classification vegetation management mitigation projects and presentation These sensors have very high spatial resolution with ranges from 61 cm to 82 cm for the panchromatic band and 2 4 to 3 2 meter for the multispectral bands The temporal resolution is roughly three to five days Aerial Sensors The Phoenix System Infrared Line Scanner http www fs fed us fire niicd Infrared PhoenixCapabil html has been a mainstay of the wildland fire response for years It has a resolution capable of detecting an 8 600 F hot spot from 14 000 AGL Since it is mounted on an aircraft platform it can be flown as needed Example of using high resolution imagery for 3D presentation One new application that may hold promise is Unmanned Aerial Vehicles UAVs NASA is currently developing a program that could support wildland fire needs http www gsfc nasa gov topstory 2003 firesames html These platforms are able to stay aloft for long periods of time and can be used in applications that are too dangerous dirty or dull Response The use of imagery to produce incident maps was reiterated Additionally in August 2000 the fire situation was taxing the ability of regional and national fire managers One resource that was developed to assist was the Geospatial Multi agency Coordination Group GEOMAC This group was tasked with information dissemination to wildland fire managers and to the public using a wide range of geospatial tools and web based mapping applications Among the remote sensing Phoenix thermal imagery applications routinely used by GEOMAC were the thermal data from AVHRR and MODIS These were combined with other data to produce situation maps The satellite data was routinely used for identifying hot spots and mapping fire perimeters Also shown were several other websites that tracked fires or associated issues such as a smoke impact product from NOAA Recovery The presenter discussed and showed several examples of using satellites primarily high resolution VNIR sensors to identify burned areas and assist with burn severity mapping and assemble flood potential maps Mitigation The use of remote sensing was illustrated in the aspect of mitigating wildland fire potential through the development of vegetation classification including extents of mortality The presenter showed work that was being done by the Mountain Agency Safety Taskforce MAST in California and by the Colorado Sate Forest Service using imagery from DigitalGlobe Among the products produced by MAST is an interactive web page that shows mortality classifications derived from the satellite imagery Colorado State Forest Service mitigation project incorporating QuickBird imagery Also discussed was the federal initiative known as LANDFIRE This is an attempt to create a nationwide set of data layers that can be used for a wide range of management applications including wildland fire uses The presenter indicated that the project is basing the scale of the project at a resolution of 30 m pixels and that remote sensing would be an important compone nt in developing the layers