*2.1. Study Area*

The Rim Fire occurred in California's Sierra Nevada, starting in the Stanislaus National Forest and burning into Yosemite National Park (Figure 2). The Rim Fire started on 17 August, 2013 and was contained on 24 October 2013. According to the official fire perimeter statistics from the state of California (http://frap.fire.ca.gov/) the Rim Fire burned 104,131 ha and was the largest fire ever recorded in the Sierra Nevada and the fourth largest in California [3]. Several vegetation types were affected by the fire: coniferous forests dominated by Ponderosa pine (*Pinus ponderosa*), Lodgepole pine (*Pinus contorta*), red fir (*Abies magnifica*), and mixed conifer stands; deciduous and evergreen hardwood forests made up of various lower montane species including blue oak (*Quercus douglasii*), valley oak (*Quercus lobata*), interior live oak (*Quercus wislizeni*), and California buckeye (*Aesculus Californica*); annual grass; and shrubs, primarily composed of many common upper and lower montane Sierra Nevada chaparral species such as manzanita (*Arctostaphylos* spp.) and California lilac (*Ceanothus* spp.).

**Figure 2.** Airborne Visible/Infrared Imaging Spectrometer (AVIRIS) false color composite of the Rim Fire from 17 November 2013 imagery. The composite used bands centers at 2217 nm (red), 832 nm (green), and 657 nm (blue). Areas of no data within the Rim Fire are portrayed as black. Areas included in the mosaic of 28 September 2013 WorldView-2 imagery are outlined in red. The location of the field plots used in this analysis are portrayed with yellow dots.

#### *2.2. AVIRIS Imagery and MESMA*
