Summary
Determining how the frequency, severity, and extent of forest fires are changing in response to changes in management and climate is a key concern in many regions where fire is an important natural disturbance. Forest Service scientists developed the first broad-scale, ground-survey-based statistical estimates of fire severity for a full range of severities and fire sizes. They compared their results with from those satellite-based analyses and found that about 20 percent of the forested National Forest System lands experiencing fires, either wildfires or prescribed burns, between 1993 and 2007, were not noted on the maps generated by the satellite-based analyses.
