Document


Title

A comparison of thermocouples and temperature paints to monitor spatial and temporal characteristics of landscape-scale prescribed fires
Document Type: Journal Article
Author(s): Louis R. Iverson; Daniel A. Yaussy; Joanne X. Rebbeck; Todd F. Hutchinson; Robert P. Long; Anantha M. Prasad
Publication Year: 2004

Cataloging Information

Keyword(s):
  • animation of fire
  • Carya spp.
  • climatology
  • combustion
  • convection
  • cover type conversion
  • ecosystem dynamics
  • FFS - Fire and Fire Surrogate Study
  • fire case histories
  • fire dependent species
  • fire equipment
  • fire frequency
  • fire intensity
  • fire management
  • fire suppression
  • forest management
  • hardwood forest
  • heat
  • landscape ecology
  • litter
  • logging
  • oak forests
  • oak regeneration
  • Ohio
  • Quercus spp.
  • rate of spread
  • regeneration
  • season of fire
  • site treatments
  • slash
  • state forests
  • surface fires
  • temperature
  • thinning
  • topography
  • wind
Region(s):
Record Maintained By:
Record Last Modified: June 1, 2018
FRAMES Record Number: 4370
Tall Timbers Record Number: 17488
TTRS Location Status: In-file
TTRS Call Number: Journals-I
TTRS Abstract Status: Okay, Fair use, Reproduced by permission

This bibliographic record was either created or modified by the Tall Timbers Research Station and Land Conservancy and is provided without charge to promote research and education in Fire Ecology. The E.V. Komarek Fire Ecology Database is the intellectual property of the Tall Timbers Research Station and Land Conservancy.

Description

A method to better monitor landscape-level fire characteristics is presented. Three study areas in southern Ohio oak-hickory (Quercus-Carya) forests were established with four treatment areas of 20 ha each: control (C), burn only (B), thin only (T) or thin plus burn (TB). Two independent measures useful for qualitatively characterising fire intensity were established on a 50-m grid, resulting in over 120 sampling locations at each site, in the burned areas: aluminum tags painted with temperature-sensitivepaints, and logger-probe units that logged probe temperature during bums. Fires were conducted in spring 2001. The logger-probe units allowed five measures qualitatively related to fire intensity or timing to be calculated at each grid point: maximum probe temperature; duration of probe temperature above 30 degrees celsius; a heat index, defined as the summed temperatures above 30°C; time of maximum temperature; and estimated rate of spread. Maximum temperatures recorded by the two measuring systems were highly correlated. Relative to painted tags, logger-probe units provide information useful for assessing some other components of fire behaviour. The temporal recording of temperatures allowed us to prepare a web-based simulation of the fires. Heat index and rate of spread estimates provided additional fire information. The TB units consistently burned cooler than the B units, perhaps because of uncured slash and a disrupted fuel bed in those units.

Online Link(s):
Link to this document (3.6 MB; full text; pdf)
Citation:
Iverson, Louis R.; Yaussy, Daniel A.; Rebbeck, Joanne; Hutchinson, Todd F.; Long, Robert P.; Prasad, Anantha M. 2004. A comparison of thermocouples and temperature paints to monitor spatial and temporal characteristics of landscape-scale prescribed fires. International Journal of Wildland Fire 13(3):311-322.