Burned Area Survey of Yellowstone National Park, Wyoming, Montana, Idaho. The Fires of 1988.

Spatial Analysis Center - Yellowstone National Park

The map depicts the distribution and character of the burned areas of Yellowstone National Park as of October 2, 1988. The following burn categories were delineated: Canopy Burn, Mixed Burn, Non-forested Burn, Undifferentiated Burn, and Unburned Areas. Undelineated Burn is not depicted on the map, but can be calculated indirectly (Burn categories are explained in the Supplemental Information section). This fire mapping project was initiated in October of 1988 with the acquisition of color infrared aerial photography of early October 1988 at a scale of 1:24000 and Landsat imagery of October 2, 1988 at a resolution of 25 meters (0.15 acres). The study area was about 2.2 million acres. A team of scientists and technicians experienced in the interpretation of aerial photography and vegetation mapping, used standard soil and vegetation mapping techniques to delineate areas by intensity of burn, degree of soil heating, and type of vegetation burned. The minimum map unit size was 5 acres. It was recognized that even a 5-acre resolution does not fully portray the details of all burn mosaics, patterning often occurs even on a scale of inches. A 5-acre resolution was the best compromise of cost and efficiency and provided sufficient precision to be of use to researchers investigating landscape-scale effects of the fires. Ground-truthing for Landsat was provided by the aerial photography interpretation.