In a pickle

As I mentioned on Friday, I got an order to map the La Barranca Fire near Sedona, AZ, last week. Typically, I use Landsat 5 whenever I can for a fire. That bird was overhead May 30, meaning it wouldn't be back overhead until June 14th or so. We figured that would be too late, so I sent in the lat/long coordinates to my ASTER contacts. I did this on Friday, knowing that ASTER would be over the fire on Wednesday, June 7. Apparently, my email on Friday wasn't enough lead time as the order couldn't be placed in time.

So...no ASTER acquisition for this Wednesday. That leaves me with a few options: do I call up the French-owned SPOT folks and order a scene from them? Or do I attempt a high-resolution acquisition from birds like Quickbird or IKONOS?

Since the fire growth stopped short of 1,000 acres, I'm guessing the need for a map product from me is diminishing. I think the field folks could rent a helicopter and assess the whole fire in an hour and not have to deal with me ordering imagery. Plus, anything besides Landsat or ASTER begins to cost us thousands of dollars. For a fire smaller than 1,000 acres, I'm not sure it's worth the money or effort.