![]() ![]() NDVI uses the Near Infrared and Red spectral bands to measure healthy vegetation based on the principle that photosynthetic organisms absorb most Red light and reflect most Near Infrared light. The Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) is widely used to detect and measure the extent of wildfires by using the photosynthetic activity of vegetation as an indicator of a fire’s emersion. This is an effective method in mapping a fire’s intensity and burn severity, because the thermal emissivity of an active fire is greater than that of its surroundings. To accurately assess the breadth of the Tubb’s Fire, critical hotspots were georeferenced and thermal anomalies were detected using Landsat8’s thermal infrared band 10. The fire started on October 8th and quickly spread throughout Sonoma County and Napa County, burning a total of 36,807 acres until its full containment on October 31st. ![]() One of the most damaging fires in California was the Tubbs Fire (2017). The prevalence of these wind circulations is felt strongest during the months of September through December - now denoted as California’s “fire season.” The Santa Ana’s in Southern California bring similar hot, dry winds that stem from high pressures inland. The Diablo winds in Northern California bring hot, dry air that originate offshore due to high pressure over the land and low pressure over the ocean. In addition to drying vegetation, wind systems such as the Diablo and Santa Ana winds circulate through Northern and Southern California. Introduction:Ĭalifornia’s Meditterranean climate makes it susceptible to “fire seasons” - large quantities of rainfall are collected in the winter, followed by a hot and dry summer that essentially leaves blooming vegetation left to dry out and become fuel for fires. This presentation was culminated in tandem with the following peers from the University of California, Los Angeles: Shannon Cavanaugh, Austin Gates, Mikayla Hart, Jaclyn Villars Klaus, and Madeline Jordan. Three objectives were set for the parameters of this project’s success: measuring active and burnt area extent using thermal imagery, comparing NDVI fluctuations for vegetation health with fire activity, and illustrating post-fire social and structural implications for Sonoma County. This project examines the Tubbs Wildfire that devastated Sonoma County, CA in October of 2017. ![]() And more than 2,500 firefighters are working to keep the blazes in check, but the return of strong winds on Saturday stands to continue to make that difficult.Ĭorrection: An earlier version of the map featured two old fires, the Whittier Fire and Canyon Fire, that have been contained.Using remotely sensed images for at-risk areas - like those entrenched in wildfires - is essential for monitoring vegetation indices and mitigating the fire’s destructive spread. More than 200,000 people have already fled the fires. The city of Los Angeles is home to 4 million people, and more than 10 million people live in Los Angeles County. Strong late-season Santa Ana winds are now rapidly driving the flames forward, putting one of the most populated regions of the country at risk this week. That these blazes, which are mostly still uncontained, are all happening now is due in part to low rainfall and high temperatures this year, which left dry fuel all around Southern California. The largest of these are the Thomas Fire, the Creek Fire, the Rye Fire, the Lilac Fire, the Liberty Fire, and the Skirball Fire. Javier Zarracina/VoxĪmid the harrowing images of smoldering hillsides and homes turned to ash, one of the most remarkable facts about these fires is that they are burning large swaths in separate places at the same time, as you can see in this map. They’ve already torched 158,000 acres, and forecasters are expecting strong winds throughout region over the weekend, making the fires worse. Six large fires are now simultaneously burning around Southern California. ![]()
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