OK so far I have list of the steps to get dozer lines into CalTopo. You can also import them into Google Earth. It’s a first draft, it’s late, may have a typo here and there… zzzz
Using QGIS to filter fire data and import into CalTopo.draft_2.082421.pdf (102.3 KB)
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I see these IR images from “The Lookout” all over… Does anyone know why they don’t post their maps with a North orient? Just curious…
Because it gives you a better idea of the terrain the fire is working in. Plus it has a marker showing you where north is anyways.
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There is usually a compass in the upper right corner that will give you the direction for North. In order for the 3D feature to work well, one needs to rotate the view so you look at it from different directions. I also find it disorienting, but with the compass, I’ve learned to work with it.
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Yes, I do use google earth a lot. But I am north oriented in my brain. It is easier for me when working in google earth to swing around the perspective to a north oriented look, periodically, to keep it relative (to me) to the proximity. I was just curious when uploading the photo’s why they do not change them to north. I am lost with out my compass. ( pun intended )
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The Lookout here. Getting a lot of comments about making North-up maps on Twitter, too… Not in a hurry to do it. It just doesn’t have the same visual impact. I pick each angle to tell a story of how the fire is moving, especially in deep canyons. I’ll try to throw in a few more north-ups, and am working on adding more placenames, but kind of am just in survival mode throwing out dozens of maps in short order, a one-man map shop at the moment.
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A big THANK YOU
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Your maps are great Zeke thank you for all your work! I agree with your sentiments of being able to get a better understanding of the topography by shifting the perspective and getting to check out the different aspects is very handy, generally only takes a quick check of the compass to get oriented! Thanks again!
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Have you thought about volunteer help or internships for supporting The Lookout?
The website has been up for like a whole month already shouldn’t you have a support team by now /s?
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Where would I be able to find high resolution post-fire imagery?
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I made a post in response to @apx8000 relaying that the helco and AA having a hard time with seeing the spots due to smoke and by the time they could recognize them they are 5 acres. It got flagged by the community as innapropriate for the thread so i will put it here.
My response was that this was a perfect argument for persistent IR capability when in a firefight like the MMU-OAK. Having a manned or unmanned aircraft above the stack share the IR data live with the AA and helco and ops folks on the ground to make our ops safer and more efficient.
FIRIS is fully capable of doing this today right into ATAK. Courtney could as well with a few little minor enhancements. This is just like what the DRTI folks do when we have them out but we dont need to wait for the military to do this. We have the sensors and applications to do it even during IA.
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Who is flagging these posts? They seem perfectly appropriate.
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Snowflake software
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If I were to guess, the first two because I think they were on the Continuing thread, the other two not sure.
Either way I’m guessing the the flags have carried over to this thread, not sure why they are blocked here.
Maybe Skynet has become self aware and see them as giving up secret info. 
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Im not concerned about the flagging lol lets talk leveraging technology like persistent IR to OPS folks! There has been nearly round the clock coverage from IR yet we have helco and air attack struging with locating spots until they are 5 acres. The visibility definetely does not help with aircraft but hearing dozers having to pull out and reengage because now there are 5 acre spots that the AA and helco could not see visibly when they were much smaller is an issue we could solve with technology available today.
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Courtney has flown the fire twice this afternoon but there is no publicly-available IR data I can find posted. Who on the ground has access to this intel? They already live-stream their perimeters from the plane. If they put this info on a public server like FIRIS does, anyone with cell and ATAK would have it.
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Hey folks! FYI I just got my AS Degree in Fire Tech and will transfer to ASU this spring for my BS in GIS. Any tips on learning ArcPro on my own or with an online cert course? Very cool convo BTW! I’m intrigued!
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Congrats!
Lots of practice is key for learning GIS, and some classes on GIS fundamentals. Look for a course that is platform-independent and teaches the basics of GIS, not just ArcPro. Also, see if you can get a course in remote sensing (imagery analysis). Satellite data and LiDAR are really some of the best tools for fire and fules-related GIS and analysis. And solid spreadsheet skills are really important for GIS.
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What public server if OES Intel planes posting to?
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