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Full-Text Articles in Earth Sciences

Investigating The Lagged Relationship Between Smap Soil Moisture And Live Fuel Moisture In California, Usa, Shenyue Jia, Seung Hee Kim, Son V. Nghiem, Keun Hang S. Yang, Menas Kafatos Feb 2021

Investigating The Lagged Relationship Between Smap Soil Moisture And Live Fuel Moisture In California, Usa, Shenyue Jia, Seung Hee Kim, Son V. Nghiem, Keun Hang S. Yang, Menas Kafatos

Mathematics, Physics, and Computer Science Faculty Articles and Research

Live fuel moisture (LFM), defined as the ratio between water in the fresh biomass out of the dry biomass, is a vital measurement of vegetation water content and flammability. In this study, we investigated the dynamics of in-situ measurement of LFM at all the active sites in California, USA and revealed the difference between evergreen forest and shrub/scrub, the two dominant land cover types in California's fire-prone regions. We found that LFM of evergreen forest responses to soil moisture increase later than shrub/scrub, due to a later occurrence of major precipitation, a lower air temperature, and the different plant physiology. …


Estimating Live Fuel Moisture In Southern California Using Remote Sensing Vegetation Water Content Proxies, Shenyue Jia, Seung Hee Kim, Son V. Nghiem, Wonhee Cho, Menas Kafatos Jul 2018

Estimating Live Fuel Moisture In Southern California Using Remote Sensing Vegetation Water Content Proxies, Shenyue Jia, Seung Hee Kim, Son V. Nghiem, Wonhee Cho, Menas Kafatos

Mathematics, Physics, and Computer Science Faculty Articles and Research

Wildfires are a major ecological disturbance in Southern California and often lead to great destruction along the Wildland-Urban Interface. Live fuel moisture has been used as an important indicator of wildfire risk in measurements of vegetation water content. However, the limited field measurements of live fuel moisture in both time and space have affected the accuracy of wildfire risk estimations. Traditional estimation of live fuel moisture using remote sensing data was based on vegetation indices, indirect proxies of vegetation water content and subject to influence from weather conditions. In this study, we investigated the feasibility of estimating live fuel moisture …