Detecting and quantifying rangeland burning using remotely sensed burned area and active fire data: A case study of Western Minnesota

Rangeland burning in the Great Plains of the contiguous United States is often a component of land management for preserving and/or promoting native vegetation, expanding and improving wildlife habitat, improving foragability for livestock and wildlife, and controlling invasive species. This analysis focused on a rangeland area of western Minnesota actively managed with prescribed burning by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) for wildlife habitat, native grasses, and reduction of fire danger in peatlands. The objective of this analysis was to determine if coarse resolution global satellite-based burned area and active fire products as well as moderate resolution satellite burn scar data could be used to detect and quantify these numerous but small scale management burns being conducted in a short time period. Satellite-based fire data and products could then potentially be used to monitor small-scale prescribed events, as well as prove to be important inputs into ecological, landscape, and atmospheric emission models, including managing the impact of smoke from rangeland and peatland fires on local populations and fire response units