posted on 2024-09-12, 20:00authored bySean A. Parks, Lisa M. Holsinger, Carol Miller, Cara R. Nelson
This fire atlas includes all 1972-2012 wildland fires at least 20 hectares (ha) or 50 acres in size that occurred within or intersected the Selway-Bitterroot Wilderness (Montana and Idaho). There are two main components of this fire atlas; the first being a fire history shapefile depicting fire perimeters, and the second being raster files representing satellite-inferred burn severity for these fires. For fires that occurred from 1972 to 1983, burn severity is measured as dNDVI (delta normalized difference vegetation index), which is calculated using Landsat multi-spectral scanner (MSS) data. For fires that occurred between 1984 and 2012, burn severity is measured as dNBR (delta normalized burn ratio), RBR (relativized burn ratio), and dNDVI (delta normalized difference vegetation index), which are calculated using Landsat TM (thematic mapper), ETM+ (enhanced thematic mapper plus), and OLI (operational land imager) data. This fire atlas was created for a project funded by the Joint Fire Science Program (JFSP) titled "Quantifying the effectiveness and longevity of wildland fire as a fuel treatment" (JFSP 12-1-03-19). To conduct this study, constantly generated fire history (vector dataset depicting fire perimeters) and fire severity (raster datasets depicting satellite-inferred metrics of severity) were needed for all fires greater than or equal to 20 hectares between 1972 and 2012. Original metadata date was 08/03/2015. Minor metadata updates on 12/19/2016.
These data were collected using funding from the U.S. Government and can be used without additional permissions or fees. If you use these data in a publication, presentation, or other research product please use the following citations:
Parks, Sean A.; Holsinger, Lisa M.; Miller, Carol; Nelson, Cara R. 2015. Fire atlas for the Selway-Bitterroot Wilderness. Fort Collins, CO: Forest Service Research Data Archive. https://doi.org/10.2737/RDS-2015-0024
Parks, Sean A.; Holsinger, Lisa M.; Miller, Carol; Nelson, Cara R. 2015. Wildland fire as a self-regulating mechanism: the role of previous burns and weather in limiting fire progression. Ecological Applications. https://doi.org/10.1890/14-1430.1