Landsat Shows Spread of Soberanes Fire August 23, 2016
A wildfire near Soberanes Creek along the Pacific coast of California started July 22, 2016, and spread to over 86,000 acres one month later.
California Department of Forest and Fire Protection officials say the blaze began after an illegal campfire was abandoned. By mid-August, it had destroyed 57 homes and was threatening 410 more structures in an area hugging the coast northwest of Big Sur.
Landsat images from July 13, July 29, and August 14 show the dramatic progression as active fire burns orange in the latter two scenes, and smoke appears as a blue haze. Landsat 8’s Operational Land Imager sensor using shortwave infrared, near infrared, and red spectral bands reveals the growing red burn scar from a fire that was only 60 percent contained by mid-August.
The Soberanes Fire is one of the largest blazes in California’s 2016 fire season, with more than 4,100 firefighters battling it at various times.
Crater Lake Image Shows Potential of Sentinel-2A August 16, 2016
This image from the European Space Agency’s Sentinel-2A satellite offers a breathtaking view of Crater Lake National Park in southern Oregon. It offers something equally important to park managers, scientists, and anyone else interested in land cover change—a view that is highly similar and complementary to Landsat acquisitions.
In this 100th anniversary year of the National Park Service, land managers and scientists tasked with overseeing parks and other government-owned lands typically rely on frequent remote imaging to monitor changes to forests, vegetation, hydrology, and more. Frequent imagery means observers can detect change quicker, and address or manage the effects of change in a more timely fashion.
With its potential repeat coverage of every 10 days, Sentinel-2A should eventually provide additional revisit opportunities to the 8-day coverage from Landsats 7 and 8 combined. Sentinel-2A has spectral bands similar to Landsat 8, with a higher spatial resolution in several bands. So at Crater Lake, for example, a hydrologist seeking information on the amount of snow cover in the high country around the lake, and the subsequent snowmelt, should benefit in the future from more potential images.
Beyond scientific use, Sentinel-2A, like the Landsat satellites, offers a stunning view of the national park, which was established in 1902—14 years before the National Park Service came into being. Crater Lake formed 7,700 years ago when the volcano Mount Mazama erupted and collapsed into itself, creating the deepest lake in the United States. A burn scar visible just north of the lake in this image was caused by a wildfire in August 2015.
Sentinel-2A imagery is free and can be downloaded through EarthExplorer or GloVis, online search and order tools available through USGS.
Landsat Reveals Scar of ‘Good Burn’ at Guadalupe Mountains August 9, 2016
Wildfires in wilderness areas like Guadalupe Mountains National Park in west Texas are always a danger, but they can produce what land managers call a “good burn,” too. The Coyote Fire that scorched parts of Guadalupe Mountains from May 7, 2016, until June 17 is a prime example of that.
Pre- and post-fire images acquired with shortwave infrared (SWIR), near infrared (NIR), and red bands on Landsat 8’s Operational Land Imager sensor reveal a significant, 14,442-acre burn scar within the park’s high country. The burn scar appears red in the June 23 image. Lightning started the wildfire, and strong winds drove it to the Texas-New Mexico border.
As many as 300 firefighters worked to keep the blaze from encroaching on private lands or reaching park structures, while officials decided to let portions of the fire simply burn. The Guadalupe Mountains’ rugged backcountry makes firefighting dangerous. On top of that, areas of the densely wooded park hadn’t burned in almost a century. Unharnessed, the Coyote Fire consumed dead wood and saplings that could have fueled future catastrophic blazes. Land managers also avoided drenching the wilderness in retardants and scarring the la