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Pacific Southwest Research Station
800 Buchanan Street
West Annex Building
Albany, CA 94710-0011

(510) 559-6300

 United States Department of Agriculture Forest Service. USDA logo which links to the department's national site. Forest Service logo which links to the agency's national site.


Fire Science

Wildfire Monitoring and Prediction
Forest Mapping

 

 
Vegetation mortality survey,
San Bernardino National Forest
27-30 April 2003


As viewed by the FireMapper™ system
in reflected red, near-IR, and thermal IR frequencies

Images were collected from the PSW Airborne Sciences Aircraft flying over the area near Big Bear Lake.

The forests in the San Bernardino Mountains and the
Peninsular Ranges are seriously drought stressed. In addition, some have diseases (dwarf mistletoe, annosus root disease) which also cause severe stress. Stressed trees can't produce enough resin to protect against pathogens. Examples of these include the California flatheaded borer, mountain pine beetle, red turpentine beetle, Jeffrey-pine beetle and western pine bark beetle. The fir engraver attacks fir trees while the Ips beetle is a scavenger that attacks the tops of trees, along with slash and seriously distressed trees.
Trees in the San Bernardinos are subject to drought, air pollution, and complexes of pests, not just beetles. Deciduous species are affected the same as the coniferous species; black oaks there are suffering from drought stress and also defoliation by the fruit-tree leafroller.

(Entomologist Dr. Laura Merrill, personal communication)

 

 

 

 

Location Map:

Shaded relief map of the Fawnskin, Big Bear City, Rattlesnake Canyon, Big Bear City, Moonridge, and Onyx Peak area. Color overlays show area of processed imagery.


Click on the image above to view a larger JPEG image

 

 

 

Image 1:

Image showing small patches of stressed and dying trees. (From an area just south of Big Bear City.)


Click on the image above to view a larger GIF image, at full resolution

This link opens the full-resolution image in a new browser window.

 

Healthy vegetation is bright green; stressed or dying vegetation is yellow-brown in this false-color depiction.

(This RGB image shows reflected red light at 650 nm in red, reflected NIR at 850 nm in green, and thermal IR at 10.5 um in blue.)

 

 

 

   

Image 2:

A mosaic of images from a flight 4-27-2003. Big Bear City is in the center of the image.


Click on the image above to view a zoom to full-resolution image in a new browser window

 

Healthy vegetation is bright green; stressed or dying vegetation is yellow-brown in this false-color depiction. Bare ground is yellow.

Residual patches of snow (on north-facing slopes) are bright yellow.

(This RGB image shows reflected red light at 650 nm in red, reflected NIR at 850 nm in green, and thermal IR at 10.5 um in blue.)

 

 

 

Image 3:

A portion of the image mosaic from a flight 4-30-2003. Seven Oaks is in the center of the image.


Click on the image above to view a larger JPEG image, at 1/2 resolution

This link opens the full-resolution image in a new browser window.

 

Healthy vegetation is bright green; stressed or dying vegetation is yellow-brown in this false-color depiction.

(This RGB image shows reflected red light at 650 nm in red, reflected NIR at 850 nm in green, and thermal IR at 10.5 um in blue.)

 

 

 

Image 4:

A mosaic of images from a flight 4-30-2003.


Click on the image above to view a full resolution image in a new browser window

 

 

Healthy vegetation is bright green; stressed or dying vegetation is yellow-brown in this false-color depiction.

Residual patches of snow (on north-facing slopes) are bright white.

(This RGB image shows reflected red light at 650 nm in red, reflected NIR at 850 nm in green, and thermal IR at 10.5 um in blue.)


Archives of past fires: 2008 2007 2006 2005 2004 2003 2002 2001


Forest mapping: 2008 2007 2006 2005 2004 2003 2002 2001

 


FireMapper™ Specifications: Instrument

FireMapper™ References: Publications

FireMapper™ Tools- image analysis software: ftp downloads page

For Further Information: contact Dr. Philip J. Riggan




FireMapper™ has been developed through a Research Joint Venture with Space Instruments, Inc., and support from the National Fire Plan, Forest Service International Programs, the U.S. Department of Agriculture, the Joint Fire Sciences Program, and the U.S. Agency for International Development.

Disclaimer: Trade names, commercial products, and enterprises are mentioned solely for information. No endorsement by the U.S. Department of Agriculture is implied.

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 Last Modified: 2005-02-16