The most important ecological effects of fire may not be evident for many years after burning.  Take permafrost, for example:   just-published research is revealing extensive thawing and drying of soils in the aftermath of the Boundary Fire in interior Alaska.  Brown et al. 2016 found almost all the severely burned plots in their study had thawed by 10 years after the 2004 fire.  Without permafrost the burned areas were better drained, leading to drier soils, and influencing vegetation succession.

Typical burn appearance after 3 years (R. Jandt)

Another interesting facet of their study was the array of remotely-sensed data that Brown and colleagues employed, including optical and infrared spectra (Landsat 7 & 8), radar (L-band Synthetic Aperture Radar, or ALOS-PALSAR), and topographic (Light Detection and Ranging–LiDAR) datasets. Infrared indices used in the study were strongly correlated with soil moisture–allowing researchers to map the distribution of permafrost and compare it to burn severity maps.

Citation:
Brown, D.R.N., Jorgenson, M.T., Kielland, Knut, Verbyla, D.L., Prakash, Anupma and J.C. Koch. 2016. Landscape effects of wildfire on permafrost distribution in interior Alaska derived from remote sensing.  Remote Sensing 8 (8): 654, doi:10.3390/rs8080654.