Multiple baselines reveal short and long-term change

ForWarn's ability to capture short and long-term change is shown by this animated image pair that provides two different temporal contexts for the same date in May of 2012. The "all year" baseline shows change since 2000. Note the patchy forest loss from strip mines in eastern Kentucky and West Virginia. Twin tornadoes also show up, and these occurred in March 2012. As expected, they also appear on the second image that shows change since May 2011, but most of the strip mine activity does not, as it took place prior to 2011. Multiple baselines are a powerful tool for describing the cumulative effects of slow-acting disturbances while providing near-real time insights into the timing and magnitude of recent disturbances before successional recovery takes place.