Cedar Fire,
San Diego County
28 October 2003
As viewed by the FireMapper
Thermal-Imaging Radiometer
Images were collected from the PSW Airborne
Sciences Aircraft and disseminated in part by satellite
communications in near-real time. FireMapper measures the
radiance of emitted thermal-infrared light, which readily
penetrates smoke. False-color images shown here depict
the apparent surface temperature (in Celsius) as estimated
from
radiance and a simple black-body model. Warmer tones represent
recent or active combustion; areas of gray are cooling
ash
or warm bare ground (see chart below). Low temperatures
of unburned forest and cool ground are shown in green.
Images have been geographically referenced. Vertical exaggeration
in 3-d views is 1.5 to one unless otherwise noted.
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Fire Area Map
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Click on the image above to view a larger JPEG image
(opens a new browser window)
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Fire Imagery
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The following color-coded images depict apparent ground surface temperatures
in Celsius. Background images are false-color infra-red data collected
before and after the Cedar Fire.
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Image 1
Ground surface temperatures as viewed from above at 11.9
micrometers wavelength on 28 October 2003, between 11:30
AM and 12:29 PM PST.
Background image is from July 2003. |
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(opens a new browser window)
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Image 1a
3-D view from the north of Image 1, above. |
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(opens a new browser window)
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Image 2
Ground surface temperatures as viewed from above at 11.9
micrometers wavelength on 28 October 2003, between 11:30
AM and 12:29 PM PST.
Background image is from November 2003. |
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(opens a new browser window)
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Image 2a
3-D view from the north of Image 2, above.
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Click on the image above to view a larger JPEG image
(opens a new browser window)
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Fire Imagery
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The following color-coded images depict apparent ground surface temperatures
in Celsius. Roads, streams, and the text in the background are from
a 1:250,000 topographic map.
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Note: These images were collected by sensors in a small aircraft
flying in turbulent Santa Ana wind conditions, and slight
shifts and rotations between images is to be expected.
When the individual images are spliced together into a
larger mosaic, errors in edge matching may result in duplication
of some points near the seam, and the loss of others in
the overlap area. Do not depend on these images for accurate fireline locations.
Use the map backgrounds as a general location guide, and
look for recognizable terrain features or landmarks on
the imagery itself for relative positioning of hotspots.
Bodies of water, street grids, open fields, highways, ridgelines
and stream courses show up well in this imagery.
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Multi-pass mosaic image:
Ground surface temperatures as viewed from above at 11.9 micrometers wavelength
on 28 October 2003, between 11:30 AM and 12:29 PM PST.
Eastern flank of the fire; fire is burning outside of image area also.
Link to download geoTIFF file of thermal image. 1 MB zip file. |
Click on the image above to view a larger JPEG image
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Images from repeat flight later in the day
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Multi-pass mosaic image:
Ground surface temperatures as viewed from above at 11.9 micrometers wavelength
on 28 October 2003, between 5:06 PM and 5:39 PM PST.
Eastern flank of the fire; fire is burning outside of image area also.
Link to download geoTIFF file of thermal image. 2 MB zip file. |
Click on the image above to view a larger JPEG image |
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