2014 Research Highlights
ForWarn Expands Tools and Services for Monitoring Forest Disturbances
Scientists with the Eastern and Western Threat Centers collaborated to develop ForWarn, an online, satellite-based forest monitoring system that produces weekly maps of vegetation conditions across the lower 48 United States. Scientists and resource managers have used ForWarn maps hundreds of times during the system’s four seasons of operation to detect and track biotic and abiotic forest disturbances (http://forwarn.forestthreats.org/highlights). To provide users with additional tools and services, scientists and collaborators developed and added three new map products that highlight unexpected forest change.
Two new ForWarn products compare views of current forest conditions with long-term baselines of vegetation greenness levels that are "averaged" through the inter-annual variability among years. These map products improve ForWarn's ability to detect potential forest disturbances in spite of normal year-to-year climatic variations and help ForWarn users separate disturbances such as insect defoliation or fire effects from disturbances due to year-to-year seasonal shifts. A third new ForWarn product, called Early Detect, cuts down users’ waiting time to see disturbances in forest areas where cloud cover is not obscuring satellite-views. Early Detect maps are useful for recognizing rapid disturbances after just a few days—far faster than ForWarn’s standard map product line which relies on a 24-day rolling window to provide the clearest cloud-free views of forest vegetation greenness.
ForWarn products are now available on mobile devices, including smart phones and tablet computers. The ForWarn system has earned several prestigious awards, including the Chief’s Honor Award for “helping to preserve and enhance the nations’ forests and grasslands.”
Forest Service Partners/Collaborators: Western Wildland Environmental Threat Assessment Center; Forest Health Monitoring Program
External Partners/Collaborators: NASA Stennis Space Center; US Department of Energy Oak Ridge National Laboratory; US Geological Survey EROS Data Center; University of North Carolina Asheville’s National Environmental Modeling and Analysis Center
Contact: Bill Hargrove, (828) 257-4845, william.w.hargrove@usda.gov
