Use of Satellite Imagery to Assess Fire Severity

For many years, fire severity and extent have been charted on topographic maps by ground crews or from aircraft. Both methods are costly and provide maps with little detail. Using satellite imagery, fire perimeters and severity can be mapped at the scale of 30 m (98') pixels. For example, a satellite image of a 1,000-ha (2,500-acre) fire is composed of more than 14,000 individual picture elements, each representing different levels of fire severity. However, in order for the satellite image to be meaningful, this information must be correlated with conditions observed on the ground. The satellite images will be used to update the vegetation and fire history layers of the park’s GIS database. See Normalized Burn Ratio and Composite Burn Index for more information.