Timing Constraints on Remote Sensing of Wildland Fire Burned Area in the Southeastern US 英文参考文献.docVIP

Remote Sens. 2011, 3, 1680-1690; doi:10.3390/rs3081680 OPEN ACCESS Remote Sensing ISSN 2072-4292 /journal/remotesensing Article Timing Constraints on Remote Sensing of Wildland Fire Burned Area in the Southeastern US Joshua J. Picotte 1,* and Kevin Robertson 2 1 ASRC Research and Technology Solutions (ARTS), Contractor to the US Geological Survey (USGS), Earth Resources Observation and Science (EROS) Center, 47914 252nd Street, Sioux Falls, SD 57198, USA 2 Tall Timbers Research Station and Land Conservancy, 13093 Henry Beadel Dr., Tallahassee, FL 32312, USA; E-Mail: krobertson@ * Author to whom correspondence should be addressed; E-Mail: jpicotte@; Tel.: +1-605-594-2677; Fax: +1-605-594-6529. Received: 29 June 2011; in revised form: 5 August 2011 / Accepted: 9 August 2011 / Published: 15 August 2011 Abstract: Remote sensing using Landsat Thematic Mapper (TM) satellite imagery is increasingly used for mapping wildland fire burned area and burn severity, owing to its frequency of collection, relatively high resolution, and availability free of charge. However, rapid response of vegetation following fire and frequent cloud cover pose challenges to this approach in the southeastern US. We assessed these timing constraints by using a series of Landsat TM images to determine how rapidly the remotely sensed burn scar signature fades following prescribed burns in wet flatwoods and depression swamp community types in the Apalachicola National Forest, Florida, USA during 2006. We used both the Normalized Burn Ratio (NBR) of reflectance bands sensitive to vegetation and exposed soil cover, as well as the change in NBR from before to after fire (dNBR), to estimate burned area. We also determined the average and maximum amount of time following fire required to obtain a cloud-free image for burns in each month of the year, as well as the predicted effect of this time lag on percent