USDA FOREST SERVICE

Pacific Southwest Research Station

Fire Science: Wildfire Monitoring and Prediction

Grand Prix Fire, San Bernardino County, CA 22 October 2003, 17:54 to 17:59 PDT

Surface temperatures as estimated from radiance measured at 11.9 micrometers wavelength in the thermal infrared by the PSW FireMapper system. A color scale is shown at lower right. Warmer tones (red, orange, yellow) represent recent and active combustion; surrounding landscape temperatures where measured are shown in tan shades. Large reaches of higher temperature behind a fire front are typically associated with heavy fuel loading.