Google earth V 6.2.2.6613. (December 13, 2017). Santa Barbara, United States. 34.6099° N, 120.0665° W, Eye alt 13.72 feet. DigitalGlobe 2020. http://www.earth.google.com [December 12, 2023].
Directly accessing & processing MPC STAC data
Raster analysis applying false color imagery
Time series analysis
To get a better understanding of the initial environmental and public health impacts caused by the Thomas Fire, together, we will explore the Air Quality Index (AQI) of SB County between 2017/01 - 2018/10. We’ll quanitfy and visualize the amount of particulate matter seen in the image abouve using both the Daily AQI and the average AQI over a 5 day rolling window in units of ppm. In addition, we will gain insight into what parts of Santa Barbara County were exposed to the Thomas Fire, through the examination of burn scars using false-color imaging on Landsat 8 satellite data from the Microsoft Planetary Computer (“MPC”). We will use a simplified collection of bands (red, green, blue, near-infrared and shortwave infrared) from the Landsat Collection 2 Level-2 atmosperically corrected surface reflectance data.
AQI Data for PPM Quantification & Trend Analysis Overtime
The Daily Air Quality Index (AQI) data to quantify the particulate matter released into Santa Barbara County from the fire was collected here from the US Environmental Protection Agency to visualize the rolling AQI averages between 2017 and 2018.
Landsat Data for Burn Scar Visualization
For our true and false color imagery, we are going to direct access Microsoft Planetary Computer Landsat Collection 2 Level-2 data. The STAC item utilized for this project is LE07_L2SP_042036_20171217_02_T1. The raster data was collected on 2017-12-17.
This data should be used for visualization purposes only.
California Fire Perimeter Data for Burn Scar Visualization
The shapefile of fire perimeters in California were provided by the California State Geoportal. The complete file can be accessed here.
US Environmental Protection Agency (2023). Daily AQI by County [Data File]. Available from https://aqs.epa.gov/aqsweb/airdata/download_files.html#AQI. Accessed October 25, 2023
Microsoft Planetary Computer. Landsat Collection 2 Level-2 [Dataset]. Available from https://planetarycomputer.microsoft.com/dataset/landsat-c2-l2. Accessed November 28, 2023
California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection (2023). California Fire Perimeters (all) [Data File]. Available from https://gis.data.ca.gov/datasets/CALFIRE-Forestry::california-fire-perimeters-all-1/about. Accessed November 28, 2023