Recent GAO reports have identified a need for land managers to develop measures to evaluate the efficacy of fuels treatments for mitigating fire hazard on federal lands. The proposed Automated Fuels Treatment Effectiveness Evaluation Using Remote-Sensing Information (AFTEERS) tool will address this stated need by developing a methodology to rapidly and efficiently assess wildland fuel treatment effectiveness using satellite observations and associated map products. Fuels treatments are intended to manage fire behavior potentials for a variety of societal benefits including maintaining ecosystem sustainability, enhancing fire fighter safety, protecting private property, preserving natural resources, and improving air quality. Methodologies exist to evaluate fuels treatment effectiveness after wildfires; however, these techniques are time- and labor-intensive. As a result, fire managers have expressed a need for tools that allow them to easily and rapidly evaluate the performance of fuels treatments. The AFTEERS tool will use remotely sensed information to efficiently assess the performance of individual fuels treatments across landscapes. A tool that uses satellite products to accurately assess fuels treatment effectiveness in a timely manner would greatly enhance decision-making regarding the types and placement of fuels treatments. In the AFTEERS project, we will use the Monitoring Trends in Burn Severity (MTBS) fire severity map products including the normalized burn ratio (NBR) and the differenced burn ratio (dNBR) to assess fuels treatment effectiveness. The NBR and dNBR map products are produced from Earth satellite observations collected by the Thematic Mapper (TM) and the Enhanced Thematic Mapper (ETM+) aboard the Landsat 5 and 7 satellites. The dNBR index is an algorithm that calculates the differences between the ratios of near-infrared (band 4, 0.76-0.90 micrometers) and mid-infrared (band 7, 2.08-2.35 micrometers) pre-and post-fire. The AFTEERS project will use the calculated difference in reflectance pre- and post-burn to assess the influence of the fuels treatment on fire activity during wildfires. The potential for success using MTBS products to evaluate fuels treatment effectiveness is high, as several successful research projects have used remotely sensed images such as the MTBS products to clearly show influences of fuels treatments across landscapes. A known concern with using Landsat-derived products is that Landsat 5 and Landsat 7 will soon reach the end of their usefulness; however, the Landsat Data Continuity Mission (LDCM) is in place and set to launch in 2012 to provide data continuity with the current 39-year-old Landsat data records (http://ldcm.gsfc.nasa.gov/). A successful launch will ensure that LANDFIRE and MTBS products will be available for future use in AFTEERS. The end product of the AFTEERS project will be a fuels treatment effectiveness tool that incorporates Earth observations and associated products into existing fire management decision support systems including the JFSP-sponsored Interagency Fuels Treatment Decision Support System (IFTDSS), the BlueSky Framework, and the Wildland Fire Decision Support System (WFDSS). This project will address two of the four Applied Earth Sciences Programs application themes by providing support for decisions regarding Air Quality (health) and Ecological Forecasting (timing, placement, and type of fuels treatments). In addition, the AFTEERS project directly addresses several of the priority topics listed in the NASA Roses announcement such as mitigating fire behavior conditions, evaluating fire mitigation activities (fuels treatments), and reducing fire emissions and smoke. Each of these topics is directly related to the goals of using NASA Earth Observations data for societal benefits related to improved public safety and environmental health.