Friday Flash: Monitoring Trends in Burn Severity- New 2012 Data

Firescience.gov Friday Flash

Issue 95 | June 6, 2014

Monitoring Trends in Burn Severity (MTBS)
New 2012 Fire Data

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Above: Locations of all 2012 MTBS fires mapped across CONUS, Alaska, Hawaii, and Puerto Rico.
Map by Jennifer Lecker, Remote Sensing Applications Center

The Monitoring Trends in Burn Severity (MTBS) project recently completed burn severity mapping for fires occurring in 2012 that met MTBS size criteria. This brings the total number of fires mapped by the project to 17,936, and covers 133 million acres. With this release the MTBS data record now spans the years 1984 through 2012.

WHAT IS MTBS?

MTBS is a multi-year project designed to consistently map the locations, extent, burn severity and boundaries of fires across all lands of the United States that have burned since 1984. MTBS data is used at local and regional levels to evaluate ecological impacts of fire, and at the national level to identify trends in burn severity. This information is necessary for monitoring the effectiveness and effects of the National Fire Plan and the Health Forests Restoration Act.

MTBS FIRE DATA SAMPLE

Thematic burn severity classification (Google Earth) for the Hogatza River Fire (Alaska) which ignited on June 16, 2012 burning approximately 23,700 acres. The LANDSAT pre-fire image was captured in September of 2010, with the post-fire image captured September 2013.

Delineated burned area boundary for the Hogatza River Fire on the post-fire LANDSAT image (left) with the derived burn severity classification (right).

Get MTBS Products & Data

MTBS Overview via Northern Rockies Fire Science Exchange

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