Click on one of the following to jump to that section. Hit the Back button
to return here.
A. Introduction:
B. National Web Links with General Fire
Information:
C. Regional Web Links:
D. Forest or Local Sites:
E. Individual Fire Sites and information:
Individual Fire Maps
F. Satellite Images of Smoke and Fire and other
fire maps:
G. Printing hints for maps and other large files:
H. Editing Instructions (to use this page as a
template for your personal version):
I. Web Site Statistics:
A. Introduction:
This site has two primary purposes. I use it as a "launching pad" to
see the daily forest fire and smoke situation; and also as a means to describe
the fire situation to friends and relatives. Emphasis is on sites of interest
to those in Custer and Lemhi Counties and the Frank Church River of No Return
Wilderness in Idaho. Note: many maps are displayed as .GIF or .JPG images
and in MS Internet Explorer (MSIE) they will often initially display at a
reduced size. * Click on a + symbol to enlarge or a – symbol to “fit to
screen”. With older versions of MSIE, Look for the box with arrows at the lower
right of the image and click this to enlarge the image.
The order of the links is from the general to the specific.
Caution when you visit a site for the second time, you may not be seeing the latest copy. If the information appears out of date, you should click on the "REFRESH" Button of your browser or hit F5. In addition, most maps and other graphic files take a long time to load. If you open the link in a "new window" you can continue to "surf" or read the current page while the page with the graphics is opening. In Internet Explorer rest the cursor on the link and right Click the mouse and select "Open in New Window". I also use this method in many "Frames" pages to "get out of the frame".
C. Regional Web Links:
US fire responsibility is broken out into Geographic Area Coordination
Centers. The National Center is Boise and is home to the above national
"nifc" links. Refer to http://www.nifc.gov/nicc/
for a map of the GACC's. Our area of interest will be the Eastern Great Basin
(for Southern Idaho) and the Northern Rockies (for Montana and Northern Idaho,
essentially north of the Salmon River.):
D. Forest or Local Sites:
Much of the information that I need is obtained from the above sites. However,
the individual forest sites often have additional information and are often the
only source of information for small fires.
E. Individual Fire Sites and Information, or
maps:
Previously some of the fire teams had their own web sites. These were only
active while that team was on the fire. Currently I know of no pages like this.
I’m sure they have been replaced by the INCIWEB
system.
Individual Fire Maps in addition to the
above sites you can produce fire maps as follows:
Initially it’s probably best to see
what maps are available on Inciweb then
proceed here.
1. Go to the Geospatial Multi-Agency Coordination
(GEOMAC) site and if you haven’t used the map yet, click on the User’s Guide
and some of the other links before clicking on the Wildfire Mapping Link. If
you are already knowledgeable, go directly to http://geomac.usgs.gov/viewer/viewer.htm.
Make sure a new window opens and then WAIT for a US Map to load that
shows "Active" Large fires as green triangles. It takes awhile. Make
sure the “Zoom In” menu selection is “lit up” at the bottom of the map. Now
go to the "Jump To Fire" box and select the desired fire, or
alternatively, Click your mouse slightly above and to the left of the desired
location and drag the mouse below and to the right of the desired area, release
the mouse. In either case, wait for a larger scale map (covers a smaller area)
to load.
Initially the following values will be checked as “Visible”: Current Fires,
Current Fire Perimeters, States, and Shaded Relief. Current fires will be
checked as “Active”. As you Zoom in, the following will also be shown and I
suggest that you check them as “Visible”: MODIS Thermal Satellite, HMS
Thermal Satellite, All 2009 Fires (Optional), Past 2009 MODIS, Cities &
Towns, Road Numbers, Roads & Interstates, Counties, and Water Bodies.
There are some others that are optional, but I suggest that you don’t check
Land Ownership because it clutters the map. After checking these additional
values, you need to click the “Refresh Map” option. The MODIS and HMS
selections are important because they will allow the map to display burning or
burned area. These will show as red, orange or black spots or areas with a
cross hatch pattern. Not all fires have their actual perimeters plotted, so
these patterns will display the approximate perimeter. In addition, it’s very
common to find Red or Orange spots that have no name associated with them. In
most cases these are new fires that are not yet named or isolated fires that
are part of “complex”. Red is recent burning, orange is for the previous 12
hours burning, and black is for older burns. Click on the "Help" link
for definitions. Unfortunately these burn patterns won't display, once you
zoom in past a certain point. If the MODIS option is not listed (and
checked as a "Visible Layer") they won't show. If they don’t show,
select the “Zoom Out” option at the bottom of the map and click your mouse once
at the center of your area of interest. Unfortunately you may want to see a
little more detail (for example some low standard roads and trails won’t
display until you are zoomed in beyond the point where the burned areas show.
Thus try and remember where the burn area is based on the shaded relief and
then zoom in some more. I often zoom in and out several times. However note
that if you zoom in too much the map will appear out of focus.
Another technique is to zoom in as much as you can to still see the
MODIS burn patterns and yet see good shaded relief and then “Pan” the map
around. Do this by selecting “Pan” at the bottom of the map and then
clicking on one of the arrows at one of the sides, top, or bottom of the map. I
often find new fires this way that later show up as named fires.
2.
The MODIS Active
Fire Maps Viewer is very similar to the above viewer. I won’t go into
details at this time but many of the instructions for the above map viewer
apply to this one. I did notice that when you select “Identify Feature Mode”
and click on a fire location the decimal Latitude & Longitude is displayed.
3.
The following Large Fire Incidents site is easier than the above
but doesn't have the "zoom in" option as above, so one won't see as
much local detail. Go to: http://activefiremaps.fs.fed.us/
and hover your mouse over the numbered red dots until you see the name
of the fire that you want, or look up the number of your fire on the list at
the bottom of the map. Then click the red button on the map for your
desired fire and wait for a small window to display some basic fire
information. Note that Forest Fires under 100 acres are not listed. Previously
the following was a valid technique. However on 23Jun09 I found no General fire
location link. I’ll leave the instruction in – in case the feature is
activated. At the bottom of the small window
click on the “General fire location” link.
Your previous window will be replaced with a General Fire Location Map for
your fire of interest. Your file will be located near the center of this
map. Any other nearby fires will also be shown. Select the “More imagery for
this fire” link at the bottom. Additional imagery may or may not be available
but your fire’s Latitude and Longitude should be listed. You can copy and paste
this data into a mapping site to produce a topographical map.
Currently the only method that I know of to consistently get Latitude &
Longitude is from the “Detailed Situation Reports” described in Section “C”
above or from one of the two map programs (Geomac or Modis). To get Latitude
& Longitude in Geomac you need to select the “Identify” link and then click
on any of the icons that represent a fire. Geomac lists decimal latitude and
longitude as follows: 31.836 -111.564 and can be copied and pasted directly
into the ACME Mapper. In Modis you select the “Identify Feature” link and click
on any of the icons representing a fire. Decimal longitude and latitude will be
listed as follows: -111.564 31.836. You will need to reverse the longitude and
latitude values in the ACME Mapper before clicking the find button. (Not
reversing these will put you in Africa).
4. * An ACME Mapper
TOPOGRAPHIC or PHOTO MAP of the fire area can be displayed as follows: Go one
of the Geographic Area Coordination Center's Detailed Situation Reports (or
other source) and get the Latitude & Longitude of a fire. Then go
to the ACME MAPPER and navigate to
the data entry box at the lower right. If it’s not visible click the small
green square and it should re-appear. Now in the box to the left of the
“Find” Button, enter the Latitude and Longitude of the fire. You can use
several format methods. For example N 31 50 10 W 111 33 50 would be the way to
enter 31 degrees, 50 minutes and 10 seconds North and 111 degrees 33 minutes
and 50 seconds west. Now click “Find”. The screen will zoom in using the
“Map” display mode. Note that above your entry box you’ll now see the same
values in decimal degrees. Now look at the upper right and see the following Display
Options: Map, Satellite, Hybrid, Terrain, Topo, DOQ, NEXRAD, and Mapnik.
Initially you’ll be in Map mode and unless you are near a major highway you
won’t see any features. Check out each display option. Satellite will usually
give you a color photo view similar to Google Earth or Google Maps. That’s
because the Acme Maps uses Google Maps at least in part. All the display
options work for most areas, but some may not be as good when zoomed in. If
there are some roads or other features shown in map mode the Hybrid mode will
retain them in conjunction with Satellite mode. Terrain and Topo are also very
useful. The Topo and DOQ (A black & white Digital Orthophoto Quad) data
comes from the Terra Server and sometimes takes awhile to load and sometimes
when the Terra Server is not “up” you won’t get anything.
Use the feature in the upper left to pan or to zoom in or out. You can also pan
(move the map) by pressing the left mouse button and dragging. You can zoom in
if you have a wheel mouse by moving the wheel away from yourself. Move it
toward yourself to zoom out. To get a full screen display click on the spinning
globe in the box at the lower right. The box will disappear and be replaces
with a small green square. For MSIE browsers you can hit F11 to eliminate some
of the top menu. If you pan too far away from your original location you can
hit the small green square at the lower right and hit “Find” again. You’ll go
back to the original location at the default zoom level. I found this very
helpful. Note that as you pan and zoom, your web address doesn’t change. If
you get to a display that you’d like to save or share with someone else – click
the “Link to This Page” icon and the web address in your browser URL window
will re-calculate. You can now copy this address and save it or mail it to
someone else and you/they will get the same view when you/they paste that
address into the browser or click on it if it’s a “hotlink” in the email.
There’s even an Email button to simplify this process.
The print feature in the lower right didn’t give me enough options. The MSIE
Print Preview option was a little better. Adjust the “Shrink to Fit” option
before printing to get a better display. If you have an editing program such as
Adobe Photoshop Elements, you can do a screen capture and edit the captured
image. However I have a screen capture program called Snagit which works almost
as well for editing and is MUCH faster.
Previously I’d used Topozone for the above procedure. However Topozone has
been bought out and it’s no longer free. I’m sure there are other
alternatives, but I really like the ACME MAPPER. One can do about the same
thing in Google Maps or in Google Earth, but Acme Mapper has more display
options. Topo maps can be added to Google Earth and there’s a Feature in Google
Maps to added contour lines, but both are time consuming. Note that one can
enter Latitude & Longitude in the Google Earth “Fly To” box in exactly the
same way as described above.
5. A small-scale
smaller size general location map can be obtained at the following site
using instructions similar to the above Acme Mapper site except that you need
to add a minus sign in front of a west longitude entry. http://www.mapquest.com/maps/latlong.adp.
There’s also a satellite view similar to the above.
Note also that the following link http://activefiremaps.fs.fed.us/activefiremaps.php is to a map that has links to smaller scale maps covering a large area such as the entire Eastern Great Basin. Fires are identified.
F. Satellite Images of Smoke and Fire and other
fire maps:
1. The "Visible" Satellite Image will show the smoke from
large fires if the cloud cover is not too heavy. I was able to locate
several fires before there was any public information on them. Either the
Missoula, Boise, or Pocatello 1KM "Visible" Image will cover our
area. If you are more interested in Northern Idaho or Glacier Park, use
Missoula. For better coverage of the Snake River Plain, use the Boise or
Pocatello Images. Check out more than one. Sometimes one will be clearer than
another. You'll need a state roadmap with county boundaries to help interpret
these. Click on: http://www.wrh.noaa.gov/satellite/?wfo=mso
and ensure that the “1km Visible” box is selected. Then choose
Missoula, Boise, or Pocatello. Once the window loads, select the
Animation button and wait for the 8 images to load. To get a slightly
better view click on the Zoom Button and then click on the map at the center of
your area of interest. You can determine the approximate location of a smoke
plume using the state and country boundaries. Idaho and Montana state maps with
the county boundaries highlighted will help.
The date and time displayed on the images are Universal Coordinated Time (UTC) or the date and time at Greenwich England. Subtract 6 hours to get our local Mountain Daylight Time. Note that images after 18:00 (06:00 PM) or 00:00 UTC will show the next days date. Images much after 09:00 PM or 03:00 UTC will be too dark to show anything. You can still retrieve images after 09:00 PM because there is a lag in publishing the image. The GOES Visible Loop can often be retrieved well after 10:00 PM although the last image may not be readable. Check out the link to “Tutorials” for more information about these images.
In addition you might want to select the Radar Imagery from the menu at the left of the screen at the above site. Then select either Composite or Base Reflectivity “Loop”. I think I was able to identify a new fire on one of these loops once.
* 1a. The HamWeather.Com site is very similar to the above site with a stationary image and an animated (I think) image. This site however has a much larger display size. I may comment more after I get a chance to use it:
1b. The "Intellicast Site" is similar to the above sites. Note that the Visible Image "Loop" for the "Salmon National Forest" is not as good as the Intellicast stationary image because one cannot add county boundaries or other landmarks. Click on the Pan & Zoom link to get the stationary image which is somewhat clearer. This also allows some additional options including the ability to display with county boundaries.
2. The following link is to a very small scale map and a description of the NOAA Fire Hazard Mapping System: http://www.osdpd.noaa.gov/ml/land/hms.html There’s a link to a viewer that can be manipulated similarly to the GeoMac Fire Mapping program. Read the instructions and use the GeoMac viewer before using this and you shouldn’t have problems. You can go directly to this viewer at: http://www.firedetect.noaa.gov/viewer.htm and zoom in to see “Detected Smoke Plumes and Hot Spots”. Be sure and make the county boundaries “Visible”.
3. Fire Imagery:
Go to: http://activefiremaps.fs.fed.us/imagery.php
and select a recent date with imagery. Normally you’ll be looking for “Idaho
– West Montana”. I found the “False Color” imagery to be the easiest
to use. I could see that many of the burned areas were reddish and many times
smoke had a blueish cast that was slightly different than adjoining clouds. I
found it easiest to look for Flathead Lake and then scroll down to our area.
4. Temporary Flight Restrictions (TFR's) on Sectional Aeronautical
Charts, and Text Pages:
Go to: http://tfr.faa.gov/tfr2/list.jsp
and select a state and click on Go for a list of most TFR’s. Click on
any “NOTAM” number for more details and a small size – small scale map and a
link to the full text of the Notice to Airmen. When you read the text, in most
cases the fire name is listed. There is also a link to a portion of the Sectional
Aeronautical Chart, which covers this fire. Note that you may find
restrictions for fires that you have no information on. Most likely for fires
in the wilderness that are mostly being "watched".
5. NOAA Operational Significant Event Imagery (Northwest):
http://www.osei.noaa.gov/Events/Fires/US_Northwest/
The Operational Significant Event Imagery team produces high-resolution,
detailed imagery of significant environmental events which are visible in
remotely-sensed data available at the NOAA Science Center in Suitland,
Maryland.
Sometimes the images produced by the team show fires in the Northwest, often in
Idaho and Western Montana. Select one of the "S" (Standard) Images
for a recent date and read the caption on top to see if it's worth loading.
They have smaller "P" (Preview) Images, but the print is so small
that it's easier to just load the standard version.
* 6. US Forest Service Region 4
Advanced Very High Resolution Radiometer (AVHRR) Tyros Satellite Images:
http://www.fs.fed.us/r4/rsgis_fire/
Previously the above link had some good imagery. It appears that the AVHRR was
last available in 2005. The above link may provide access to other fire data,
although a quick view didn’t reveal anything on 23Jun09. It’s possible that
some of the MODIS data replaces this. I’ll leave the link and the following
instructions here in case they re-activate the site. The
above link was to a page where you select the current month which lead to a
page with links to several types of images for each day of the month. For each
day there was at least one "Visible" or Band 1 Image, and at least
one "Infra Red" or Band 3 Image. At least through the 1st half of
July, for most days, there was "Cumulative Burn Maps for all
"Western United States". These maps showed current fire as red
and previously burned area as black. Not all fires were listed. I expect that
if a fire was not actively burning when the satellite went over, that fire
wouldn't show on the map. The average user would probably have found the
Cumulative Burn Maps and the Infrared Image the most helpful.
G. Printing hints for maps and other large files:
If you know that you'll want to print a copy of one of the maps or larger
images, it's faster to save the file to your disk and print it later. In MS
Explorer, rest your cursor on the link to the desired file and right click and
select "Save Target As". You can click on the file later and read it
with your browser or other default program for that type of file. I have a $15
Photoworks Plus V2.31 from Seattle Filmworks. It works better for printing maps
than MS Explorer or MS Photo Editor. I use the "Poster Mode" to
distribute the map over several pages.
H. Editing Instructions (to use this page as a
template for your personal version):
You can save this file and edit it to reflect your personal needs. To save this
file, make sure that it's saved as an HTML file with an ".htm" or
".html" extension (suffix). You can then double click on the file
name and your web browser will launch. You can also launch your browser and
then open this file (Using File, Open, Browse, etc.). Click on any of the above
links to go to that site. If not already connected your web browser will open
and will dial your Internet Service Provider (ISP).
Once filed, this can be edited by most modern word processors. For example: if you have MS Office 97, then within MS Internet Explorer Version 5, you can select "File" and "Edit with Microsoft Word for Windows 97". Other Browsers and other word processors will vary as to commands. Note that you cannot line up or space words with the space bar or with tabs in an Internet document. You can insert a "Nonbreaking Space" as was done here, or you can use Tables to accomplish this. Save the document periodically and then go back to the Browser version and hit the Refresh Button to see your changes.
|
Word Count: |
5,452 |
|
Web Location |
|
|
Last revised on web: 1/ |
06/23/2009 11:45 PM |
|
Previously revised on web: |
08/13/2006 01:05 AM |
|
Home Page Location |
|
|
Contact: |
Email is: ckeene41-b4 followed by an @ and then yahoo.com |
1/. Changed paragraphs or sentences are preceded by an
asterisk *
** = Minor edit done on: 07/24/09..
