USDA FOREST SERVICE

Pacific Southwest Research Station

Fire Science: Wildfire Monitoring and Prediction

Vallecito Lightning Complex Fire, San Diego County, CA 14 August 2012, 11:59 to 12:18 PDT

Surface temperatures as estimated from radiance measured at 8-12 micrometres 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; areas of light tan if shown are cooling ash or warm bare ground; low temperatures of unburned vegetation and cool ground are shown in darker gray. Large reaches of higher temperature are typically associated with heavy fuel loading.