High-resolution infrared thermography for capturing wildland fire behaviour: RxCADRE 2012
Joseph J. O’Brien A G , E. Louise Loudermilk A , Benjamin Hornsby A , Andrew T. Hudak B , Benjamin C. Bright B , Matthew B. Dickinson C , J. Kevin Hiers D , Casey Teske E and Roger D. Ottmar FA US Forest Service, Center for Forest Disturbance Science, Southern Research Center, 320 Green Street, Athens, GA 30602, USA.
B US Forest Service Rocky Mountain Research Station, Forestry Sciences Laboratory, 1221 South Main Street, Moscow, ID 83843, USA.
C US Forest Service, Northern Research Station, 359 Main Road, Delaware, OH 43015, USA.
D Wildland Fire Center, Eglin Air Force Base, 107 Highway 85 North, Niceville, FL 32578, USA.
E University of Montana, Fire Center, Room 441, Charles H. Clapp Building, Missoula, MT 59812, USA.
F US Forest Service, Pacific Northwest Research Station, Pacific Wildland Fire Sciences Laboratory, 400 North 34th Street, Suite 201, Seattle, WA 98103, USA.
G Corresponding author. Email: jjobrien@fs.fed.us
International Journal of Wildland Fire 25(1) 62-75 https://doi.org/10.1071/WF14165
Submitted: 13 September 2014 Accepted: 30 April 2015 Published: 22 June 2015
Abstract
Wildland fire radiant energy emission is one of the only measurements of combustion that can be made at wide spatial extents and high temporal and spatial resolutions. Furthermore, spatially and temporally explicit measurements are critical for making inferences about fire effects and useful for examining patterns of fire spread. In this study we describe our methods for capturing and analysing spatially and temporally explicit long-wave infrared (LWIR) imagery from the RxCADRE (Prescribed Fire Combustion and Atmospheric Dynamics Research Experiment) project and examine the usefulness of these data in investigating fire behaviour and effects. We compare LWIR imagery captured at fine and moderate spatial and temporal resolutions (from 1 cm2 to 1 m2; and from 0.12 to 1 Hz) using both nadir and oblique measurements. We analyse fine-scale spatial heterogeneity of fire radiant power and energy released in several experimental burns. There was concurrence between the measurements, although the oblique view estimates of fire radiative power were consistently higher than the nadir view estimates. The nadir measurements illustrate the significance of fuel characteristics, particularly type and connectivity, in driving spatial variability at fine scales. The nadir and oblique measurements illustrate the usefulness of the data for describing the location and movement of the fire front at discrete moments in time at these fine and moderate resolutions. Spatially and temporally resolved data from these techniques show promise to effectively link the combustion environment with post-fire processes, remote sensing at larger scales and wildland fire modelling efforts.
Additional keywords: fire radiant energy, fire radiant power, long-wave infrared.
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