Supporting targets of opportunity in ecological research: Case of the High Park Fire, 2012

Background/Question/Methods

The National Ecological Observatory Network (NEON) Airborne Observation Platform (AOP) plays a key role in bridging individual in-situ measurements to continental-scale satellite-based remote sensing. The platform consists of the NEON Imaging Spectrometer, a waveform LIDAR, and a high-resolution camera integrated into a single package. Two platforms will provide coverage of the NEON sites with a third platform providing reserve capability including the capability to respond to targets of opportunity such as natural disasters.

The western U.S. has seen an unprecedented level of wildfires in the past decade in conjunction with extensive bark beetle infestation. A major wildfire that occurred in 2012 was the 35,000 ha High Park Fire west of Fort Collins, CO. The burn scar included a range of vegetation types including lower montane-foothill shrub-land, ponderosa pine, and lodge pole pine forest. NEON, along with researchers from the larger scientific community, submitted a Rapids proposal to the NSF to study how prefire management and the bark beetle outbreak contributed to the fire extent and severity. The NEON AOP was flown over regions of the burn scar in August 2012 with subsequent flight covering the majority of the burn scar in October 2012. The collected data captured the landscape at the conclusion of the fire and provides a reference to determine the cause of fire severity and post-fire regeneration.

Results/Conclusions

NEON AOP data collected in support of the High Park burn scar deployment is being used to assist in developing algorithms and processing methods used in the NEON data flow. The lidar will provide a high-fidelity post burn digital elevation map (DEM) of the topography as well as three-dimensional mapping the burned and unburned vegetation. The provisional imaging spectrometer data will be used to produce maps of burn severity, remaining unburned beetle infestation areas, and vegetation species. The 2012 data collected will provide a baseline as the region recovers and will prove especially valuable for long-term studies of the region including planned overflights of the region in subsequent years with the NEON AOP. All data will be made publically available in accordance with NEON’s data policies.