06-15-2007 - Earth

sagar: Author=’Jeremy Shere’ program=’5179′ video=”Photo by MacPable Campbell RiverU.S. scientists are using Earth-orbiting satellites to create maps of vegetation, with the goal of managing wildfires.

The project is called “LANDFIRE”:http://www.landfire.gov/index.php, and the maps should be useful for long-term planning by land managers and short-term fire fighting efforts. According to Kevin Ryan, program manager for LANDFIRE, the maps…

Kevin Ryan: _…Allow us to predict how rapidly fires will spread across a landscape, the direction of fire spread, and how much energy the fire is predicted to release as it spreads across the landscape._

Ryan, who’s based at the Missoula Fire Sciences Lab, said the maps use 108 different pieces of information. He called them a “layer cake of data: 108 layers deep.”

Wildfires help clear away old debris and make way for new growth in forests and grasslands. No one knows whether there are more wildfires now – or whether modern fires are more intense – than hundreds of years ago.

Kevin Ryan: _There are a lot more people moving out into wildland areas so there’s a lot more property value and a lot more infrastructure that is being threatened by fires when they do occur._

But, Ryan said, fuel build-up – plus drier conditions have combined to create more severe fires in recent years.

Our thanks today to “NASA: explore, discover, understand”:http://www.nasa.gov/.

Written by EarthSky