LA Wildfire Analysis
I conducted an analysis of the 2025 LA Wildfires using Normalized Burn Ratio (NBR) and Normalized Difference Moisture Index (NDMI). NBR is used to identify burned areas on the landscape. NDMI is used to calculate water content in vegetation. Both NBR and NDMI are calculated using the same formula, except NBR uses SWIR1 and NDMI uses SWIR2. Generally, NDMI is used to assess for the potential of an area to burn, while NBR is used to identify and classify the extent and severity of burned areas after a fire. The NDMI layer sources images from December 2024 to January 7th, 2025 which is when the first fires broke out. The NBR layer souces images from February 2025, since the fires were officially contained on January 31st. One of the major reasons contributing to the fires was the intense drought that Southern California had been experience, which can be seen in the NDMI layer.
I also conducted an analysis on the impact of the Santa Ana winds on the fire which had significant impact on the spread of the fires, especially on January 7th. The Santa Ana wind layer sources images from January 7th to January 8th. The shorter time period allows the analysis to identify more extreme wind speeds.
