Fire Effects in the Santa Monica Mountains NRA
On February 11, 2013, Santa Monica Mountains National Recreation Area (SAMO) staff cheered when we saw rocket contrails from the launch of Landsat 8 a few miles north of the park. Barely 3 months later, the Springs Fire (May 2, 2013) burned 25,000 acres of parkland, and NPS GIS and remote sensing specialists were using the very first publicly released Landsat 8 images to map burn severity. Maps visualizing Burned Area Reflectance Classification (BARC) imagery helped park scientists and resource managers assess effects of the Springs Fire.