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Aqua of Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC) from 2007 and August 2007
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Deadly Fires on Sicily
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Deadly Fires on Sicily |
| Description |
Several people were killed by wind-driven brush fires in northern Sicily in late August 2007. This image from the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) [ http://modis.gsfc.nasa.gov ] on NASA's Aqua [ http://aqua.nasa.gov ] satellite shows the island on August 22, 2007. Places where MODIS detected actively burning fires are outlined in red. Smoke from fires in the Nebrodi Mountains blows north over the Tyrrhenian Sea. The large image provided above has a spatial resolution (level of detail) of 250 meters per pixel. The MODIS Rapid Response Team provides twice-daily [ http://rapidfire.sci.gsfc.nasa.gov/subsets/?AERONET_ETNA ] images of the region in additional resolutions. NASA image courtesy the MODIS Rapid Response Team, [ http://rapidfire.sci.gsfc.nasa.gov ] Goddard Space Flight Center |
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Fires in Algeria
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Fires in Algeria |
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Fires burning in the Atlas Mountains on the northern coast of Algeria turned deadly in late August 2007. Several people were killed by forest fires that were driven rapidly across the landscape by sirocco winds (hot dry winds that blow from Africa's interior deserts toward the Mediterranean). According to news reports, thousands of soldiers were deployed to help battle the fires. Cooler weather and firefighting efforts brought many fires under control by August 31. This image shows fires (red outlines) detected around the city of Skikda by the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) [ http://modis.gsfc.nasa.gov ] on NASA's Aqua [ http://aqua.nasa.gov ] satellite on August 30, 2007. Smoke creates a thick haze over the Mediterranean Sea. The large image provided above has a spatial resolution (level of detail) of 250 meters per pixel. The MODIS Rapid Response Team provides twice-daily images of the western [ http://rapidfire.sci.gsfc.nasa.gov/subsets/?AERONET_Blida ] and eastern [ http://rapidfire.sci.gsfc.nasa.gov/subsets/?AERONET_Lampedusa ] Algerian coastline in additional resolutions. NASA image courtesy the MODIS Rapid Response Team, [ http://rapidfire.sci.gsfc.nasa.gov ] Goddard Space Flight Center |
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Fires in Algeria
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Fires in Algeria |
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Scores of forest fires were burning in northern Algeria in late August 2007. Although much of the country is occupied by the Sahara Desert, Mediterranean forests, [ http://www.worldwildlife.org/wildworld/profiles/terrestrial/pa/pa1213_full.html ] woodlands, and chaparral occur on the Atlas Mountains that line the coast. On August 29, 2007, the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) [ http://modis.gsfc.nasa.gov ] on NASA's Aqua [ http://aqua.nasa.gov ] satellite captured this image of the fires billowing thick clouds of brownish-gray smoke over the Mediterranean Sea. The smoke is so thick that the capital, Algiers, is not visible beneath it. According to news reports, dozens of families have had to evacuate, and the number of people seeking medical attention for respiratory and allergy problems has dramatically increased. The large image provided above has a spatial resolution (level of detail) of 250 meters per pixel. The MODIS Rapid Response Team provides twice-daily [ http://rapidfire.sci.gsfc.nasa.gov/subsets/?AERONET_Blida ] images of the region in additional resolutions. NASA image by Jeff Schmaltz, MODIS Rapid Response Team, [ http://rapidfire.sci.gsfc.nasa.gov ] Goddard Space Flight Center. |
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Northwest Passage Open
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Northwest Passage Open |
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Although nearly open, the Northwest Passage was not necessarily easy to navigate in August 2007. Located 800 kilometers (500 miles) north of the Arctic Circle and less than 1,930 kilometers (1,200 miles) from the North Pole, this sea route poses significant challenges, and the severe depletion of sea ice means only one of these is reduced. Nevertheless, long-term opening of the passage would have global impacts on trade and natural resource use. You can download a 250-meter-resolution KMZ file of the Northwest Passage [ http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/NaturalHazards/Archive/Aug2007/nwpassage_amo_2007241.kmz ] suitable for use with Google Earth. [ http://earth.google.com/ ] NASA image created by Jesse Allen, using data obtained from the Goddard Land Processes data archives (LAADS). [ http://laads.gsfc.nasa.gov/ ] Thanks to Walt Meier, NSIDC, U.S. National Ice Center, and John Falkingham, Environment Canada - Canadian Ice Service for image interpretation., For over 500 years, Arctic explorers have sought a passage between the North Atlantic and Pacific Oceans. Such a passage, often called the Northwest Passage, would connect Europe to Asia via shorter routes than the long voyage south around Africa. In 1497, English King Henry VII sent Italian explorer John Cabot to look for this hypothetical route and expeditions from some of the most famous explorers in the centuries that followed—Sir Francis Drake and Captain James Cook among them—met with failure. The combined efforts of a number of explorers eventually uncovered a winding path from the Atlantic to the Arctic and Pacific Oceans through the ice-bound islands of northern Canada. Even in modern times, navigating from the Atlantic to the Pacific through Canada's Arctic islands has been difficult. The summer of 2007, however, melted enough sea ice in Canada's far north to open up this long-sought passage. This image shows the islands north of mainland Canada adjacent to Greenland, as observed by the the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) [ http://modis.gsfc.nasa.gov/ ] flying on NASA's Aqua [ http://aqua.nasa.gov/ ] satellite on August 29, 2007. While the usual veil of clouds over the Arctic is visible through the scene, the sea ice pack that normally covers the water between the islands is absent. Areas often choked with ice at this time of year, but free of it in this MODIS scene, include the Parry and McClintock Channels and the McClure Strait. Larsen Sound and Victoria Strait are hidden beneath cloud cover, but they are also largely free of sea ice. [ http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Newsroom/NewImages/images.php3?img_id=17752 ] This provided a nearly ice-free connection between Baffin Bay (a long body of water between Canada's Baffin Island and Greenland that is regularly ice-free in summer) and the Arctic Ocean. An ice-free gap between the North American mainland and the Arctic sea, not shown here, extends all the way to the Bering Strait between Alaska and Russia, creating a connection almost free of all sea ice from the North Atlantic to the North Pacific. Multi-year ice (ice that survives more than one melt season) tends to be thicker and more resistant to melt than first-year ice (formed over just one winter). According to John Falkingham of the Canadian Ice Service, most of the multi-year ice melted from Victoria Strait and McClintock Channel in the summer of 2006, leaving these traditionally difficult areas more open. In mid-August 2007, only patchy areas of ice filled Victoria Strait and Larsen Sound. Falkingham described the Northwest Passage as "nearly open." Changes in the Northwest Passage were part of a larger pattern of melt in 2007 that also affected the East Siberian Sea. [ http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Newsroom/NewImages/images.php3?img_id=17743 ] |
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Fires in Greece
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Fires in Greece |
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Deadly wildfires in southern Greece wafted thick clouds of smoke over the Ionian Sea and southward to the Mediterranean in late August 2007. This image of Greece was captured by the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) [ http://modis.gsfc.nasa.gov ] on NASA's Aqua [ http://aqua.nasa.gov ] satellite on August 26, and places where MODIS detected actively burning fires are outlined in red. A line of fires stretches along the western coast of Greece's Peloponnesus Peninsula. To the northeast, a large fire is casting a plume of smoke over Athens. According to news reports [ http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/6965337.stm ] from the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC), at least 60 people had been killed by the fires as of August 27. Hundreds of homes had been burned and thousands had to evacuate. The government suspects that the fires were caused by arson, and it has declared a national emergency to deal with the situation. The large image provided above has a spatial resolution (level of detail) of 250 meters per pixel. The MODIS Rapid Response Team provides twice-daily [ http://rapidfire.sci.gsfc.nasa.gov/subsets/?Europe_3_03 ] images of the region in additional resolutions and formats, including an infrared-enhanced version that highlights burn scars. NASA image courtesy the MODIS Rapid Response Team, [ http://rapidfire.sci.gsfc.nasa.gov ] Goddard Space Flight Center |
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Fires in Montana and Idaho
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Fires in Montana and Idaho |
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In the northern Rocky Mountains of Idaho and Montana, dozens of large, dangerous wildfires burned tens of thousands of acres in late July and early August 2007. Several communities in Montana were under evacuation on August 1, according to the daily report from the National Interagency Fire Center. [ http://www.nifc.gov/ ] Like much of the United States (with the notable exception of the southern Great Plains [ http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/NaturalHazards/natural_hazards_v2.php3?img_id=14356 ]), the Northern Rockies of Montana and Idaho were experiencing moderate to severe drought in late July according to the weekly report from the U.S. Drought Monitor. This image of Montana (with a little bit of Idaho included in the lower-left corner) was captured by the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) [ http://modis.gsfc.nasa.gov ] on NASA's Aqua [ http://aqua.nasa.gov ] satellite on July 31, 2007. Locations where the sensor detected actively burning fires are outlined in red. A westerly wind appeared to have been blowing at the time of the image (2:30 p.m. Mountain Daylight Time), and plumes of smoke spread from the mountains over the state's eastern plains. As of August 1, the Meriwether (20,745 acres) and Ahorn (36,311 acres) were the largest fires in the scene, but the Skyland Fire had grown most rapidly in the previous 24 hours, it grew by an estimated 7,505 acres to a total of 16,055 acres. NASA's Terra [ http://terra.nasa.gov ] and Aqua [ http://aqua.nasa.gov ] satellites both collect fire detection data over the United States at least twice a day, once in daylight and once at night. Through a partnership between NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center's MODIS Rapid Response Team, [ http://rapidfire.sci.gsfc.nasa.gov/ ] the University of Maryland, [ http://maps.geog.umd.edu/firms//default.asp ] and the Remote Sensing Application Center [ http://www.fs.fed.us/eng/rsac/ ] of the USDA Forest Service, the satellite observations are relayed over the Internet to the Forest Service, which maps them. [ http://activefiremaps.fs.fed.us/ ] The Forest Service and its partners use the MODIS fire maps to help them make strategic decisions about where firefighting resources are needed at a national level. The large image provided above has a spatial resolution (level of detail) of 250 meters per pixel. The MODIS Rapid Response Team provides twice-daily [ http://rapidfire.sci.gsfc.nasa.gov/subsets/?AERONET_Missoula/ ] images of the region in additional resolutions. NASA image courtesy the MODIS Rapid Response Team, [ http://rapidfire.sci.gsfc.nasa.gov ] Goddard Space Flight Center |
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Fires in Montana and Idaho
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Fires in Montana and Idaho |
| Description |
Dozens of large fires were raging across the Northern Rockies in Idaho and Montana in mid-August 2007. This image of the area was captured on Sunday, August 12, at 2:55 p.m. U.S. Mountain Daylight Time by the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) [ http://modis.gsfc.nasa.gov ] on NASA's Aqua [ http://aqua.nasa.gov ] satellite. Dozens of fires (marked in red) were billowing out clouds of gray-brown smoke that spread across both states. Fires appeared especially active in the Frank Church River of No Return Wilderness area south of the Salmon River. According to the August 12 report from the National Interagency Fire Center, [ http://www.nifc.gov/fire_info.html ] 31 large fires were burning more than 753,000 acres in the two states, and activity was predicted to increase in the coming days as sustained winds of 15-20 miles per hour were predicted to race across the Great Basin and Northern Rockies. The large image provided above has a spatial resolution (level of detail) of 250 meters per pixel. The MODIS Rapid Response Team provides twice-daily [ http://rapidfire.sci.gsfc.nasa.gov/subsets/?AERONET_Missoula ] images of the region in additional resolutions. NASA image courtesy the MODIS Rapid Response Team, [ http://rapidfire.sci.gsfc.nasa.gov ] Goddard Space Flight Center |
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Fires in Montana and Idaho
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Fires in Montana and Idaho |
| Description |
In the Northern Rockies of Idaho and Montana, conditions were dry in July and August 2007. Dozens of large forest fires were burning in the area's remote, rugged terrain, much of which is federally designated wilderness area. This image of the area was captured on August 1, 2007, by the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) [ http://modis.gsfc.nasa.gov ] on NASA's Aqua [ http://aqua.nasa.gov ] satellite. Places where MODIS detected actively burning fire are outlined in red. Dozens of large fires filled the skies with thick smoke. According to the August 1 report from the National Interagency Fire Center, [ http://www.nifc.gov/fire_info/nfn.htm ] 11 large fires totaling more than 880,000 thousand acres were burning in Idaho. Five of these had been designated "Wildland Fire Use" fires, which means they will be allowed to burn according to pre-existing natural resource management plans. Because the forests of the Northern Rockies are adapted to naturally ignited fires, some fires must be allowed to burn to maintain the ecosystem in a healthy state. The large image provided above has a spatial resolution (level of detail) of 250 meters per pixel. The MODIS Rapid Response Team provides twice-daily [ http://rapidfire.sci.gsfc.nasa.gov/subsets/?AERONET_Missoula ] images of the region in additional resolutions. NASA image courtesy the MODIS Rapid Response Team, [ http://rapidfire.sci.gsfc.nasa.gov ] Goddard Space Flight Center |
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Fires in Southern Europe
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Fires in Southern Europe |
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While fires in Greece [ http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/NaturalHazards/natural_hazards_v2.php3?img_id=14474 ] appeared to have quieted down at the end of August 2007, fires continued to burn in Albania and Montenegro. This image of the Balkans was captured by the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) [ http://modis.gsfc.nasa.gov ] on NASA's Aqua [ http://aqua.nasa.gov ] satellite on August 29, 2007. Places where the sensor detected actively burning fires are marked in red. Smoke spreads eastward over Serbia. Fire activity has been occurring off and on in the Balkans since July. You can download a 250-meter-resolution KMZ file of fires in and around Albania [ http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/NaturalHazards/Archive/Aug2007/albania_amo_2007241.kmz ] suitable for use with Google Earth. [ http://earth.google.com/ ] NASA image created by Jesse Allen, using data obtained from the Goddard Land Processes data archives (LAADS). [ http://laads.gsfc.nasa.gov/ ] |
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