Changes on albedo after a large forest fire in Mediterranean ecosystems

Carmen Quintano; Alfonso Fernández-Manso; Victor Fernández-García; Elena Marcos; Leonor Calvo

doi:10.1117/12.2187346

4 September 2015 Changes on albedo after a large forest fire in Mediterranean ecosystems

Carmen Quintano, Alfonso Fernández-Manso, Victor Fernández-García, Elena Marcos, Leonor Calvo

Proceedings Volume 9610, Remote Sensing and Modeling of Ecosystems for Sustainability XII; 961018 (2015) https://doi.org/10.1117/12.2187346
Event: SPIE Optical Engineering + Applications, 2015, San Diego, California, United States

Abstract

Fires are one of the main causes of environmental alteration in Mediterranean forest ecosystems. Albedo varies and evolves seasonally based on solar illumination. It is greatly influenced by changes on vegetation: vegetation growth, cutting/planting forests or forest fires. This work analyzes albedo variations due to a large forest fire that occurred on 19- 21 September 2012 in northwestern Spain. From this area, albedo post-fire images (immediately and 1-year after fire) were generated from Landsat 7 Enhanced Thematic Mapper (ETM+) data. Specifically we considered total shortwave albedo, total-, direct-, and diffuse-visible, and near-infrared albedo. Nine to twelve weeks after fire, 111 field plots were measured (27 unburned plots, 84 burned plots). The relationship between albedo values and thematic class (burned/unburned) was evaluated by one-way analysis of variance. Our results demonstrate that albedo changes were related to burned/unburned variable with statistical significance, indicating the importance of forestry areas as regulators of land surface energy fluxes and revealing the potential of post-fire albedo for assessing burned areas. Future research, however, is needed to evaluate the persistence of albedo changes.

Citation Download Citation

Carmen Quintano, Alfonso Fernández-Manso, Victor Fernández-García, Elena Marcos, and Leonor Calvo "Changes on albedo after a large forest fire in Mediterranean ecosystems", Proc. SPIE 9610, Remote Sensing and Modeling of Ecosystems for Sustainability XII, 961018 (4 September 2015); https://doi.org/10.1117/12.2187346

ACCESS THE FULL ARTICLE

INSTITUTIONAL
Select your institution to access the SPIE Digital Library.

SELECT YOUR INSTITUTION

PERSONAL
Sign in with your SPIE account to access your personal subscriptions or to use specific features such as save to my library, sign up for alerts, save searches, etc.

PERSONAL SIGN IN

No SPIE Account? Create one

PURCHASE THIS CONTENT

SUBSCRIBE TO DIGITAL LIBRARY

50 downloads per 1-year subscription

Members: $195

Non-members: $335 ADD TO CART

25 downloads per 1 - year subscription

Members: $145

Non-members: $250 ADD TO CART

PURCHASE SINGLE ARTICLE

Includes PDF, HTML & Video, when available

Members: $17.00

Non-members: $21.00 ADD TO CART

PROCEEDINGS
7 PAGES

DOWNLOAD PAPER SAVE TO MY LIBRARY

GET CITATION

RIGHTS & PERMISSIONS

Get copyright permission Get copyright permission on Copyright Marketplace

KEYWORDS

Near infrared

Ecosystems

Earth observing sensors

Landsat

Shortwaves

Vegetation

Research management

Show All Keywords

Keywords/Phrases

Search In:

Publication Years