1. Remote Sensing of Fire Severity in Interior Alaska (some of the time) Dave Verbyla Dept. of Forest Sciences, UAF Email: D.Verbyla@uaf.edu Dave Verbyla Dept. of Forest Sciences, UAF Email: D.Verbyla@uaf.edu

2. Field Estimates : CBI

5. Field Estimate Remotely Sensed Index

9. 2 Upland Black Spruce Burns Yukon Charley 1999 Fire start mid-June NBR 9-Sept CBI-NBR trend: R 2 = 0.81, n=32 R 2 = 0.64, n=47 Boundary 2004 Fire start mid-June NBR 6-Sept CBI-NBR trend: R 2 = 0.30, n=32 R 2 = 0.43, n=28 R 2 = 0.29, n=73

12. Saturation of Spectral Response?

13. NIR reflectance SWIR reflectance

14. dNBR = 797dNBR = 672 dNBR = 913

15. Fire Severity Trends 1980s Satellite Data 1990s Satellite Data 2000s Satellite Data

16. NBR 4-Aug-2004 Sun Elevation: 36 o Azimuth: 165 o NBR 4-Aug-2004 Sun Elevation: 36 o Azimuth: 165 o NBR 6-Sept-2004 Sun Elevation: 30 o Azimuth: 166 o NBR 6-Sept-2004 Sun Elevation: 30 o Azimuth: 166 o

25. Summary Remote sensing estimates best across wide range of severity Unreliable to estimate fire severity among burns or across time Underestimate fire severity in valley bottoms, N-facing slopes Estimates should be calibrated by vegetation type