Data Set Description

From the mapping browser, you can access two primary sources of data.

The first data source is Landsat 7 - Landsat images are provided over a specific region in California; in particular, you will be looking at the region surrounding Lassen county, where a major forest fire burned from 9/26/2002 - 9/30/2002. This forest fire is known as the Cone fire.

According to: http://www.fire.ca.gov/FireEmergencyResponse/2002FireSeason/LF2002.pdf

we learn that approximately 2006 acres burned during that period. The cause of the fire is currently under investigation.

In the course of this session, a Landsat image is often times called a scene. A scene provides two critical pieces of information: the date when the image was captured by the satellite, and the exact extents (dimensions or bounding box) of the actual image itself.

From our mapping service, you will see two Landsat scenes: a before scene, captured on 8/16/2002, before the Cone forest fire occured, and an after scene, captured on 10/19/2002, a few weeks after the fire has been extinguished.

The second source of data is FRAP data - The Fire and Resource Assessment program (FRAP) is sponsored by the California Department of Fire and Fire Protection (CDF). Under this program, users can download a variety of maps regarding various characteristics of fire spread, from the following location: http://frap.cdf.ca.gov/data/frapgisdata/select.asp

We will provide three datasets you will use to compare with actual forest fires, including the one depicted in the provided Landsat imagery. These datasets provide the user with the following information:

• Fire Perimeters, Lassen county - this dataset provides information about the boundaries of large forest fires within the last 50 years, including that of the Cone fire.
• Fuel Rank, Lassen county - When trees burn, they are considered fuel at that point. This dataset creates a fuel ranking based on many factors, including the topography of the region, vegetative growth, and local weather climates/patterns. This dataset essentially gives an indication of the flammability of a particular region. Fire Ranks range from moderate to very high.
• Surface Fuels, Lassen county - Groups of vegetation that have the same burn characteristics (speed in spreading, fire intensity, etc.) are categorized together. Using these characteristics, firefighters can develop common techniques for dealing with a certain type of fire.

There are also extra datasets that provide additional contextual information, to help you make better sense of the region you're currently looking at, and to help you better navigate to the correct locations. They are:

• Cone - This layer is created from the FRAP fire perimeters layer, that pinpoints the exact boundaries of last year's Cone forest fire. You can use this layer to navigate directly to the actual fire
• Geographic Names - This layer provides geographic names to well known geographical features in the state of California. Inclusion of this layer helps you determine the areas surrounding the Cone fire
• DRGs - Various Digital Raster Graphics (DRG) images from the area of interest are included in the service. Their names are based on the standard USGS Grid Names. The names of the included DRG imagery are Susanville (1:250K, C Series) and Burney (1:100K, F Series). In addition, two DRG Grid layers (C Series and F Series) provide information about the bounding boxes of DRGs in the region.

Now that you know what kinds of data you will be using, we'll describe how the interactive demonstration will proceed. The interactive session will be split into two phases. In the first phase, you will use the map viewer to navigate directly to the burn area. Once you're there, you will use the blending tool to compare the before and after images. You will also access the band manipulation tool to better see the burn area, with the provided false color composite image. The band manipulation tool provides the essense of spectral analysis - the interpretation of colors to better understand geological variations.

Time permitting, we will then move on to fire analysis, by looking at the three FRAP datasets and analyse specific characteristics of the Cone forest fire in Lassen county. Click the following link to learn more about the Landsat 7 bands, and the imagery we host: Landsat Bands