Int. J. Wildland Fire 6(3): 125-136,1996 O IAWF. Printed in U S A. Remote Sensing of Forest Fire Severity and Vegetation Recovery

Abstract. Burned forested areas have patterns of varying burn severity as a consequence of various topographic, vegetation, and meteorological factors. These patterns are detected and mapped using satellite data. Other ecological information can be abstracted from satellite data regarding rates of recovery of vegetation foliage and variation of burn severity on different vegetation types. Middle infra-red wavelengths are useful for burn severity mapping because the land cover changes associated with burning increase reflectance in this part of the electromagnetic spectrum. Simple stratification of Landsat Thematic Mapper data define varying classes of burn severity be-cause of changes in canopy cover, biomass removal, and soil chemical composition. Reasonable maps of burn se-verity are produced when the class limits of burn severit