New opportunities for mapping forest fire burn severity with WorldView-3 high spatial resolution satellite imagery: A case study in the New Jersey Pine Barrens

The recent launch of the commercial, high-spatial resolution satellite, WorldView-3 (WV-3), has opened new opportunities for remote sensing of forest fire burn severity. Previous high spatial resolution, satellite-borne imaging sensors have been limited to the visible and near infrared spectral wavelengths. WV-3, in contrast, can acquire additional data in the shortwave infrared, a region that has been shown to be very useful for differentiating fire burn severity, or the degree to which the fire has consumed the forest biomass. The WV-3 shortwave infrared imagery is acquired with 3.7 m pixels, but is degraded to 7.5 m for civilian users by DigitalGlobe, the satellite operator, as required by US regulations. However, even with 7.5 m pixels, this gives a great deal more spatial detail than can be obtained from, for example, Landsat, which has 30 m pixels. Using a case study of a prescribed fire in the New Jersey Pine Barrens, I will explore the methodological issues raised by the new WV-3 data, and compare burn severity mapping with WV-3 data to what could be achieved with other satellite data.