Summary: As the western United States enters what is typically the most active time of its fire season, scientists, firefighters and residents are keeping close watch on what's burning – not just this year, but over the long term. As temperatures warm and weather patterns change, scientists from NASA, universities and other government agencies are putting their satellite observation and computer modeling capabilities to work. They are grappling with what the future landscape of fire will look like in the American West.
A tool that fire scientists use to predict where severe burns may occur is called Landfire, short for Landscape Fire and Resources Management Planning Tools project. The project uses data from Landsat satellites, a mission jointly operated by NASA and the U.S. Geological Survey.
Landfire provides maps of the nation's land cover including vegetation type, tree canopy cover and height. Together with weather information, this enables crucial fire behavior predictions to be made. These data feed into decision support systems that guide managers on where and when to deploy valuable firefighting resources and where to focus fire-prevention and recovery efforts.
USGS and the U.S. Forest Service started the program in 2003 after an intense U.S. wildfire season highlighted the need for unbiased information to guide decision makers as they allocate resources. "Fighting fires is a very expensive proposition," said Jim Vogelmann, research ecologist from USGS Earth Resources Observation and Science Center in Sioux Falls, S.D. Fire suppression costs last year topped $1.9 billion.
The first Landfire maps took five years of on-the-ground fieldwork, computer modeling and poring over satellite data to complete. Joshua J. Picotte is a remote sensing specialist with USGS in Sioux Falls. He updates Landfire data maps annually looking at changes in vegetation from previous wildfires, urban development or other disturbances. It takes two years and about 24,000 Landsat scenes to complete the annual U.S. update.
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Author: Rani Gran, NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center
August 9, 2013