Mapping wildfire burn severity in the arctic tundra from downsampled MODIS data
Wildfires are historically infrequent in the arctic tundra, but are projected to increase with climate warming. Fire effects on tundra ecosystems are poorly understood and difficult to quantify in a remote region where a short growing season severely limits ground data collection. Remote sensing has...
Published in: | Arctic, Antarctic, and Alpine Research |
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ftclarkuniv:oai:commons.clarku.edu:faculty_geography-1653 2023-09-05T13:16:32+02:00 Mapping wildfire burn severity in the arctic tundra from downsampled MODIS data Kolden, Crystal Rogan, John 2013-01-01T08:00:00Z https://commons.clarku.edu/faculty_geography/654 https://doi.org/10.1657/1938-4246-45.1.64 unknown Clark Digital Commons https://commons.clarku.edu/faculty_geography/654 doi:10.1657/1938-4246-45.1.64 https://doi.org/10.1657/1938-4246-45.1.64 Geography arctic environment data acquisition fire behavior growing season Landsat mapping MODIS regeneration satellite data tundra wildfire Geography Social and Behavioral Sciences text 2013 ftclarkuniv https://doi.org/10.1657/1938-4246-45.1.64 2023-08-14T06:15:47Z Wildfires are historically infrequent in the arctic tundra, but are projected to increase with climate warming. Fire effects on tundra ecosystems are poorly understood and difficult to quantify in a remote region where a short growing season severely limits ground data collection. Remote sensing has been widely utilized to characterize wildfire regimes, but primarily from the Landsat sensor, which has limited data acquisition in the Arctic. Here, coarse-resolution remotely sensed data are assessed as a means to quantify wildfire burn severity of the 2007 Anaktuvuk River Fire in Alaska, the largest tundra wildfire ever recorded on Alaska's North Slope. Data from Landsat Thematic Mapper (TM) and downsampled Moderate-resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) were processed to spectral indices and correlated to observed metrics of surface, subsurface, and comprehensive burn severity. Spectral indices were strongly correlated to surface severity (maximum R 2 = 0.88) and slightly less strongly correlated to substrate severity. Downsampled MODIS data showed a decrease in severity one year post-fire, corroborating rapid vegetation regeneration observed on the burned site. These results indicate that widely-used spectral indices and downsampled coarse-resolution data provide a reasonable supplement to often-limited ground data collection for analysis and long-term monitoring of wildfire effects in arctic ecosystems. Text Arctic north slope Tundra Alaska Clark University: Clark Digital Commons Arctic Arctic, Antarctic, and Alpine Research 45 1 64 76 |
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Open Polar |
collection |
Clark University: Clark Digital Commons |
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ftclarkuniv |
language |
unknown |
topic |
arctic environment data acquisition fire behavior growing season Landsat mapping MODIS regeneration satellite data tundra wildfire Geography Social and Behavioral Sciences |
spellingShingle |
arctic environment data acquisition fire behavior growing season Landsat mapping MODIS regeneration satellite data tundra wildfire Geography Social and Behavioral Sciences Kolden, Crystal Rogan, John Mapping wildfire burn severity in the arctic tundra from downsampled MODIS data |
topic_facet |
arctic environment data acquisition fire behavior growing season Landsat mapping MODIS regeneration satellite data tundra wildfire Geography Social and Behavioral Sciences |
description |
Wildfires are historically infrequent in the arctic tundra, but are projected to increase with climate warming. Fire effects on tundra ecosystems are poorly understood and difficult to quantify in a remote region where a short growing season severely limits ground data collection. Remote sensing has been widely utilized to characterize wildfire regimes, but primarily from the Landsat sensor, which has limited data acquisition in the Arctic. Here, coarse-resolution remotely sensed data are assessed as a means to quantify wildfire burn severity of the 2007 Anaktuvuk River Fire in Alaska, the largest tundra wildfire ever recorded on Alaska's North Slope. Data from Landsat Thematic Mapper (TM) and downsampled Moderate-resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) were processed to spectral indices and correlated to observed metrics of surface, subsurface, and comprehensive burn severity. Spectral indices were strongly correlated to surface severity (maximum R 2 = 0.88) and slightly less strongly correlated to substrate severity. Downsampled MODIS data showed a decrease in severity one year post-fire, corroborating rapid vegetation regeneration observed on the burned site. These results indicate that widely-used spectral indices and downsampled coarse-resolution data provide a reasonable supplement to often-limited ground data collection for analysis and long-term monitoring of wildfire effects in arctic ecosystems. |
format |
Text |
author |
Kolden, Crystal Rogan, John |
author_facet |
Kolden, Crystal Rogan, John |
author_sort |
Kolden, Crystal |
title |
Mapping wildfire burn severity in the arctic tundra from downsampled MODIS data |
title_short |
Mapping wildfire burn severity in the arctic tundra from downsampled MODIS data |
title_full |
Mapping wildfire burn severity in the arctic tundra from downsampled MODIS data |
title_fullStr |
Mapping wildfire burn severity in the arctic tundra from downsampled MODIS data |
title_full_unstemmed |
Mapping wildfire burn severity in the arctic tundra from downsampled MODIS data |
title_sort |
mapping wildfire burn severity in the arctic tundra from downsampled modis data |
publisher |
Clark Digital Commons |
publishDate |
2013 |
url |
https://commons.clarku.edu/faculty_geography/654 https://doi.org/10.1657/1938-4246-45.1.64 |
geographic |
Arctic |
geographic_facet |
Arctic |
genre |
Arctic north slope Tundra Alaska |
genre_facet |
Arctic north slope Tundra Alaska |
op_source |
Geography |
op_relation |
https://commons.clarku.edu/faculty_geography/654 doi:10.1657/1938-4246-45.1.64 https://doi.org/10.1657/1938-4246-45.1.64 |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.1657/1938-4246-45.1.64 |
container_title |
Arctic, Antarctic, and Alpine Research |
container_volume |
45 |
container_issue |
1 |
container_start_page |
64 |
op_container_end_page |
76 |
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1776198074146750464 |