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Craters of the Moon, Idaho
Ancient lava flows dating ba …
2/1/96
Date 2/1/96
Description Ancient lava flows dating back 2,000 to 15,000 years are shown in light green and red on the left side of this space radar image of the Craters of the Moon National Monument area in Idaho. The volcanic cones that produced these lava flows are the dark points shown within the light green area. Craters of the Moon National Monument is part of the Snake River Plain volcanic province. Geologists believe this area was formed as the North American tectonic plate moved across a "hot spot" which now lies beneath Yellowstone National Park. The irregular patches, shown in red, green and purple in the lower half of the image are lava flows of different ages and surface roughnesses. One of these lava flows is surrounded by agricultural fields, the blue and purple geometric features, in the right center of the image. The town of Arco, Idaho is the bright yellow area on the right side of the agricultural area. The peaks along the top of the image are the White Knob Mountains. The Big Lost River flows out of the canyon at the top right of the image. The image was acquired by the Spaceborne Imaging Radar-C/X-band Synthetic Aperture Radar (SIR- C/X-SAR) when it flew aboard the space shuttle Endeavour on October 5, 1994. This image is centered at 43.58 degrees north latitude, 113.42 degrees west longitude. The area shown is approximately 33 kilometers by 48 kilometers (20.5 miles by 30 miles). Colors are assigned to different frequencies and polarizations of the radar as follows: red is the L-band horizontally transmitted, horizontally received, green is the L- band horizontally transmitted, vertically received, blue is the C-band horizontally transmitted, vertically received. SIR-C/X- SAR, a joint mission of the German, Italian and United States space agencies, is part of NASA's Mission to Planet Earth program. #####
Agricultural Fires in Washin …
Title Agricultural Fires in Washington
Description Fall has arrived in the Northern Hemisphere, and that means it?s harvest time. In the wheat fields of Washington and Idaho in the northwestern United States, scattered fires (red dots) burn through the wheat stubble. Because of the semi-arid climate of this region, wheat is an important crop, Washington is the third-largest wheat producer in the US, and Idaho is the eighth. Surrounding the tan wheat fields are the Cascade Mountains (west), the Bitterroot Range (east), and the Blue Mountains (south). Aqua MODIS acquired this true-color image on September 22, 2003. The high-resolution image provided above is 500 meters per pixel. The MODIS Rapid Response System provides this image at MODIS? maximum spatial resolution of 250 meters. Image courtesy Jeff Schmaltz, MODIS Rapid Response Team, NASA GSFC
Black Pine 2 Fire, Idaho
Title Black Pine 2 Fire, Idaho
Description East of the Raft River in southern Idaho, the Black Pine 2 Fire had scorched more than 50,000 acres of grassland, brush, and juniper as of July 11, 2007, according to the morning report from the National Interagency Fire Center. This image of the fire was captured by the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) [ http://modis.gsfc.nasa.gov ] on NASA's Terra [ http://terra.nasa.gov ] satellite on July 10. The area in which MODIS detected actively burning fire is outlined in red. Smoke spreads east and mingles with clouds. The burned area appears a deep brown against the tan color of the grasslands and the dull green of forests on mountain slopes. Green circles that line the Raft River and tributaries are fields watered with a center-pivot irrigation system. At the top of the image is Lake Walcott, which is on the Snake River. 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/?USA1 ] images of the western United States in additional resolutions and formats, including an infrared-enhanced version that makes burned areas appear brick red. NASA image courtesy the MODIS Rapid Response Team, [ http://rapidfire.sci.gsfc.nasa.gov ] Goddard Space Flight Center
Blizzards in the Western Uni …
Title Blizzards in the Western United States
Description A series of heavy winter storms pummeled parts of the western United States between December 24, 2003, and January 3, 2004, blanketing the region with deep snow. Salt Lake City, Utah, reported more than six feet of snow, according to news reports. The blizzards that rolled through California, Nevada, Oregon, Washington, Idaho, Utah, Montana, Wyoming, and Colorado closed roads, knocked out power, and claimed at least two lives in subsequent avalanches. These Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer [ http://modis.gsfc.nasa.gov ] (MODIS) images, taken on January 5, 2004, by the Terra [ http://terra.nasa.gov/ ] satellite, show the extent of the snowfall from California in the west to the Dakotas, Nebraska, and Colorado in the east. The Great Salt Lake is the two-toned body of water in the center of the images. In the top image, shown in true color, only a sliver of green land west of the Sierra Nevada Mountains can be see on the left side of the image?clouds and snow obscure the rest of the landscape. The bottom image shows the same scene in false color. Here, snow and ice are dark red and orange, while clouds are white and peach. Water is black. The false color image helps differentiate between cloud cover and snow and ice on the ground. The high resolution images provided above are at 500 meters per pixel. Image courtesy Jesse Allen, based on data from the MODIS Rapid Response Team [ http://rapidfire.sci.gsfc.nasa.gov ] at NASA GSFC
Blizzards in the Western Uni …
Title Blizzards in the Western United States
Description A series of heavy winter storms pummeled parts of the western United States between December 24, 2003, and January 3, 2004, blanketing the region with deep snow. Salt Lake City, Utah, reported more than six feet of snow, according to news reports. The blizzards that rolled through California, Nevada, Oregon, Washington, Idaho, Utah, Montana, Wyoming, and Colorado closed roads, knocked out power, and claimed at least two lives in subsequent avalanches. These Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer [ http://modis.gsfc.nasa.gov ] (MODIS) images, taken on January 5, 2004, by the Terra [ http://terra.nasa.gov/ ] satellite, show the extent of the snowfall from California in the west to the Dakotas, Nebraska, and Colorado in the east. The Great Salt Lake is the two-toned body of water in the center of the images. In the top image, shown in true color, only a sliver of green land west of the Sierra Nevada Mountains can be see on the left side of the image?clouds and snow obscure the rest of the landscape. The bottom image shows the same scene in false color. Here, snow and ice are dark red and orange, while clouds are white and peach. Water is black. The false color image helps differentiate between cloud cover and snow and ice on the ground. The high resolution images provided above are at 500 meters per pixel. Image courtesy Jesse Allen, based on data from the MODIS Rapid Response Team [ http://rapidfire.sci.gsfc.nasa.gov ] at NASA GSFC
Blizzards in the Western Uni …
Title Blizzards in the Western United States
Description A series of heavy winter storms pummeled parts of the western United States between December 24, 2003, and January 3, 2004, blanketing the region with deep snow. Salt Lake City, Utah, reported more than six feet of snow, according to news reports. The blizzards that rolled through California, Nevada, Oregon, Washington, Idaho, Utah, Montana, Wyoming, and Colorado closed roads, knocked out power, and claimed at least two lives in subsequent avalanches. These Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer [ http://modis.gsfc.nasa.gov ] (MODIS) images, taken on January 5, 2004, by the Terra [ http://terra.nasa.gov/ ] satellite, show the extent of the snowfall from California in the west to the Dakotas, Nebraska, and Colorado in the east. The Great Salt Lake is the two-toned body of water in the center of the images. In the top image, shown in true color, only a sliver of green land west of the Sierra Nevada Mountains can be see on the left side of the image?clouds and snow obscure the rest of the landscape. The bottom image shows the same scene in false color. Here, snow and ice are dark red and orange, while clouds are white and peach. Water is black. The false color image helps differentiate between cloud cover and snow and ice on the ground. The high resolution images provided above are at 500 meters per pixel. Image courtesy Jesse Allen, based on data from the MODIS Rapid Response Team [ http://rapidfire.sci.gsfc.nasa.gov ] at NASA GSFC
Charleston Fire, Northern Ne …
Title Charleston Fire, Northern Nevada
Description In northeastern Nevada, a 20,000-acre fire was racing through sagebrush, grass, and juniper on August 16, 2006. According to the National Interagency Fire Center, [ http://www.nifc.gov/information.html ] a power line, residences, and grazing allotments were being threatened by the Charleston Fire. The fire was exhibiting extreme behavior according to the August 17 report. This pair of images of the Charleston Fire, burning in the area between Nevada's Matterhorn and the Marys River, was captured on August 16 by the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) [ http://modis.gsfc.nasa.gov ] on NASA's Aqua [ http://aqua.nasa.gov ] satellite. The photo-like, "natural-color" image on top shows places where MODIS detected active fire outlined in red. Thick smoke pours northeastward into Idaho. The bottom image has been enhanced using MODIS' observations of shortwave and near-infrared light to penetrate the smoke, to emphasize extremely hot areas (bright pink), and to distinguish burned vegetation (brick red) from unburned vegetation (bright green). In this kind of false-color image, the bright pink glow inside some of the active-fire perimeters often indicates open flame. According to the Western Great Basin Coordination Center of the National Interagency Fire Center, the region was primed for big fires in summer 2006 because of poor snowfall over the winter. A prolific grass crop from 2005, which normally would have been flattened and compacted by winter's heavy snow, remained standing across grasslands in spring 2006. In addition, a wet spring produced luxuriant new growth, which dried as the summer progressed. The standing grass from 2005 combined with the abundant early-2006 growth created a dangerously high load of fuel for summer fires. In July, the agency issued a fuel and fire behavior advisory, [ http://gacc.nifc.gov/wgbc/safetywarning/FireAdvisory_GB-05Jul06%5b1%5d.pdf ] warning that the accumulation of such large amounts of "fine fuels" like grass had increased the risk of intense, severe, and rapidly spreading fires across much of the Western Great Basin, including northern Nevada. The high-resolution image provided above has a spatial resolution of 250 meters per pixel. The MODIS Rapid Response System provides twice-daily images of the entire western United States at additional resolutions. [ http://rapidfire.sci.gsfc.nasa.gov/subsets/?USA1 ] NASA image courtesy the MODIS Rapid Response Team, [ http://rapidfire.sci.gsfc.nasa.gov ] Goddard Space Flight Center
Haze over the Great Lakes
Title Haze over the Great Lakes
Description Haze collected over the Great Lakes region at the end of July 2007. The Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) [ http://modis.gsfc.nasa.gov/ ] flying on NASA's Terra [ http://terra.nasa.gov/ ] satellite captured this image on July 31. In this image, the haze appears as a blue-gray film, thickest over northern Michigan and Lake Superior. Haze also obscures the view of Lake Huron and Lake Erie. Although the exact source of the haze was uncertain, it could have resulted from fires in Canada [ http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/NaturalHazards/natural_hazards_v2.php3?img_id=14405 ] or the United States. [ http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/NaturalHazards/natural_hazards_v2.php3?img_id=14398 ] An August 1, 2007, posting on the U.S. Air Quality [ http://alg.umbc.edu/usaq/ ] (Smog Blog) at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County, traced a trajectory of smoke from fires in Oregon, Idaho, and Montana passing over the Great Lakes region and continuing southeast toward Baltimore. NASA image courtesy the MODIS Rapid Response Team [ http://rapidfire.sci.gsfc.nasa.gov ] at NASA GSFC. The Rapid Response Team provides daily images [ http://rapidfire.sci.gsfc.nasa.gov/subsets/?USA3/ ] of this region.
Haze over Utah
Title Haze over Utah
Description Haze clouded the skies over the southwestern United States, especially Utah, on September 8, 2007. The Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) [ http://modis.gsfc.nasa.gov ] on NASA's Terra [ http://terra.nasa.gov ] satellite took this picture the same day. In this image, the pale colors dominating western Utah result partly from the light hues of the underlying ground surface, but a substantial gray-beige mass hangs in the atmosphere. The haze is thick enough to almost completely obscure the view of the Great Salt Lake. Although the exact origin of Utah's early September haze was not clear, it probably resulted from smoke released by fires to the north and west in Idaho and California. NASA image courtesy the MODIS Rapid Response Team, [ http://rapidfire.sci.gsfc.nasa.gov ] Goddard Space Flight Center
Heatwave in the Western Unit …
Title Heatwave in the Western United States
Description The oppressive heat that crept over parts of the western United States during the first few days of July 2007 [ http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/NaturalHazards/natural_hazards_v2.php3?img_id=14380 ] took hold of the entire West during the week of July 4 through July 11. Deep red tones blanket every western state in this land surface temperature image, an indication that temperatures were warmer than in previous years. The image was made with data collected by the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS [ http://modis.gsfc.nasa.gov ]) on NASA's Terra [ http://terra.nasa.gov/ ] satellite and shows temperatures recorded between July 4 and July 11, 2007, compared to the average of temperatures observed during the same period in 2000, 2001, and 2002. Areas that are warmer than during that three-year period are red, while cooler areas are blue. Triple-digit temperatures broke or matched records from Las Vegas, Nevada, to Great Falls, Montana, during this period. In this image, a cluster of red-black over eastern Washington, northern Idaho, and eastern Montana indicates that these regions experienced much warmer temperatures than in previous years. Western South Dakota (the Black Hills region) was also exceptionally warm. On the other end of the scale, Texas was much cooler than it had been in 2000, 2001, and 2002. Heavy rains pounded Texas on and off throughout this period, contributing to wide-spread flooding. [ http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/NaturalHazards/natural_hazards_v2.php3?img_id=14363 ] You can download a global KMZ file of Land Surface Temperature anomaly [ http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Newsroom/NewImages/Images/kansas_ast_2007187.kmz ] suitable for use with Google Earth. [ http://earth.google.com/ ] NASA image created by Jesse Allen, using data obtained courtesy of the MODIS Land Processes [ http://modis-land.gsfc.nasa.gov/ ] team.
Drought in the Pacific North …
Title Drought in the Pacific Northwest
Description As summer headed toward fall in 2007, much of the United States was experiencing drought. [ http://drought.unl.edu/dm/monitor.html ] This image shows relative vegetation greenness from August 13-28, 2007, compared to the average greenness for 2000–2006. Greenness is a general indicator of the area covered by vegetation, as well as its density and health. The image was made with observations collected by the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) [ http://modis.gsfc.nasa.gov ] on NASA's Terra [ http://terra.nasa.gov ] satellite. In many parts of the Northwest, vegetation conditions were near average (yellow areas) compared to conditions for the previous 6 years. But aside from areas that were near average, this vegetation anomaly image reveals more brown (below-average conditions) than green (above-average conditions). The most dramatic brown spots, such as those concentrated in central Idaho, mark areas recently scorched by fires. [ http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/NaturalHazards/natural_hazards_v2.php3?img_id=14515 ] Only in a few locations in the Northwest does a tinge of green emerge from the landscape, irrigated croplands (green specks) along the Snake and Columbia Rivers mix with what are probably fallow fields (brown specks). NASA image created by Jesse Allen, using data provided courtesy of Inbal Reshef, Global Agriculture Monitoring Project [ http://www.pecad.fas.usda.gov/glam.cfm ]
Drought in the U.S. Pacific …
Title Drought in the U.S. Pacific Northwest
Description From December to March, snowfall was light in the northwestern United States. Now at winter?s end, the Pacific Northwest is facing ongoing drought. Melting snow feeds the region?s streams and rivers throughout the summer, so if little snow falls, drought ensues. By March 17, 2005, snowpacks in the mountains of Washington, Oregon, Idaho and western Montana were at near-record lows, nearly guaranteeing low water levels on rivers and streams during the summer. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration?s Climate Prediction Center predicts that water levels will be at their lowest levels in 70 years in 2005. See the U.S. Seasonal Drought Outlook [ http://www.cpc.ncep.noaa.gov/products/expert_assessment/seasonal_drought.html ] for more information. The above image illustrates winter conditions in the Northwest. The image shows outgoing longwave radiation (OLR), a measure of the heat emitted from the Earth?s surface. Since clouds are cooler than land or the ocean?s surface, the measurement shows where clouds are. Scientists use this measurement to monitor for drought because a lack of cloud-cover also means a lack of precipitation. The above image is a composite of OLR data collected between December 2004 and February 2005 compared to data collected between 1979 and 1995. Areas that were cloudier than normal are blue, while regions with less cloud cover than normal are red. The Pacific Northwest was uncharacteristically clear between December and February, as indicated by the dark red over the region. NASA image created by Jesse Allen, Earth Observatory, using data provided courtesy of Assaf Anyamba and NOAA National Center for Environmental Prediction.
Drought in the U.S. Pacific …
Title Drought in the U.S. Pacific Northwest
Description From December to March, snowfall was light in the northwestern United States. Now at winter?s end, the Pacific Northwest is facing ongoing drought. Melting snow feeds the region?s streams and rivers throughout the summer, so if little snow falls, drought ensues. By March 17, 2005, snowpacks in the mountains of Washington, Oregon, Idaho and western Montana were at near-record lows, nearly guaranteeing low water levels on rivers and streams during the summer. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration?s Climate Prediction Center predicts that water levels will be at their lowest levels in 70 years in 2005. See the U.S. Seasonal Drought Outlook [ http://www.cpc.ncep.noaa.gov/products/expert_assessment/seasonal_drought.html ] for more information. The above image illustrates winter conditions in the Northwest. The image shows outgoing longwave radiation (OLR), a measure of the heat emitted from the Earth?s surface. Since clouds are cooler than land or the ocean?s surface, the measurement shows where clouds are. Scientists use this measurement to monitor for drought because a lack of cloud-cover also means a lack of precipitation. The above image is a composite of OLR data collected between December 2004 and February 2005 compared to data collected between 1979 and 1995. Areas that were cloudier than normal are blue, while regions with less cloud cover than normal are red. The Pacific Northwest was uncharacteristically clear between December and February, as indicated by the dark red over the region. NASA image created by Jesse Allen, Earth Observatory, using data provided courtesy of Assaf Anyamba and NOAA National Center for Environmental Prediction.
Fires Across the United Stat …
Title Fires Across the United States
Description This expansive image of the United States was captured by the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometers (MODIS) on NASA?s Terra and Aqua satellites. The left hand portion of the image comes from Aqua MODIS observations captured on the afternoon of October 22, 2003, while the right hand part of the image is from Terra MODIS observations captured a few hours earlier. Several geographic regions are experiencing fires, which were detected by the sensors and are marked with red dots. At upper left, fires are still burning across the Northern Rockies, the highest concentration is in Idaho, with additional fires in Montana to its east, and southeastern Washington and northeastern Oregon, to the west. In the Southwest, fires are burning in southern California near Los Angeles (gray patch right at edge of image to the north of the Baja Peninsula), as well as in the arc of mountains running through Arizona. At top center, fires are scattered across the northern Great Plains, from North Dakota and across the United States? border into Canada. Far to the south, dozens more fires are burning in the Mississippi River Valley in Mississippi (against right edge), Louisiana (to the west) and Arkansas (north of Louisiana). The high-resolution image provided above is 2 kilometers per pixel. The MODIS Rapid Response System provides this image at MODIS? maximum spatial resolution of 250 meters. Image courtesy Jeff Schmaltz, MODIS Rapid Response Team, NASA GSFC
Fires Across the United Stat …
Title Fires Across the United States
Description This expansive image of the United States was captured by the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometers (MODIS) on NASA?s Terra and Aqua satellites. The left hand portion of the image comes from Aqua MODIS observations captured on the afternoon of October 22, 2003, while the right hand part of the image is from Terra MODIS observations captured a few hours earlier. Several geographic regions are experiencing fires, which were detected by the sensors and are marked with red dots. At upper left, fires are still burning across the Northern Rockies, the highest concentration is in Idaho, with additional fires in Montana to its east, and southeastern Washington and northeastern Oregon, to the west. In the Southwest, fires are burning in southern California near Los Angeles (gray patch right at edge of image to the north of the Baja Peninsula), as well as in the arc of mountains running through Arizona. At top center, fires are scattered across the northern Great Plains, from North Dakota and across the United States? border into Canada. Far to the south, dozens more fires are burning in the Mississippi River Valley in Mississippi (against right edge), Louisiana (to the west) and Arkansas (north of Louisiana). The high-resolution image provided above is 2 kilometers per pixel. The MODIS Rapid Response System provides this image at MODIS? maximum spatial resolution of 250 meters. Image courtesy Jeff Schmaltz, MODIS Rapid Response Team, NASA GSFC
Murphy Complex Fire
Title Murphy Complex Fire
Description When two large, previously separate wildfires (Rowland and Elk Mountain) near the Idaho-Nevada state line merged over the July 21 weekend, fire management officials renamed the incident as the Murphy Complex Fire. According to the morning report from the National Interagency Fire Center on July 23, 2007, the blaze had consumed more than 560,000 acres and was 15 percent contained. This image of the Murphy Complex Fire 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 22. Places where the sensor detected actively burning fire are outlined in red. The dry grassland and sagebrush terrain appears olive-tan, while the sprawling burned area appears deep brown. 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/?USA1 ] images of the western United States in additional resolutions. Images of the separate fires were previously published in the Fires in Idaho and Eastern Oregon [ http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/NaturalHazards/natural_hazards_v2.php3?img_id=14398 ] event. NASA image courtesy the MODIS Rapid Response Team, [ http://rapidfire.sci.gsfc.nasa.gov ] Goddard Space Flight Center
Fires in Idaho
Title Fires in Idaho
Description In wilderness areas of central Idaho's Salmon River, Bitterroot, and Sawtooth Mountain Ranges, numerous fires were burning in mid-August 2006. When the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) [ http://modis.gsfc.nasa.gov ] on NASA's Aqua [ http://aqua.nasa.gov ] satellite passed overhead on August 14, the sensor detected more than a dozen active fires (locations marked in red) burning in the area. Across the state line in Montana, several fires are visible as well. Although there are no large cities in the area, residences, ranches, communications and power infrastructure, historic and recreational sites, and mining resources are threatened by the various blazes. The remote location and rugged terrain make fires in the area difficult to contain. For more information about the fires in Idaho and the rest of the United States, visit the Website of the National Interagency Fire Center. [ http://www.nifc.gov/information.html ] The high-resolution image provided above has a spatial resolution of 250 meters per pixel. The MODIS Rapid Response System provides twice-daily images [ http://rapidfire.sci.gsfc.nasa.gov/subsets/?AERONET_Rimrock ] of the area at additional resolutions. NASA image courtesy the MODIS Rapid Response Team, [ http://rapidfire.sci.gsfc.nasa.gov ] Goddard Space Flight Center
Fires in Idaho
Title Fires in Idaho
Description Parallel plumes of smoke blow northeast from several fires burning in central Idaho's Salmon River Mountains in this image captured by the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) [ http://modis.gsfc.nasa.gov ] on NASA's Aqua [ http://aqua.nasa.gov ] satellite on August 23, 2006. Places where MODIS detected actively burning fires are outlined in red. Although much of the Salmon River Mountains region is wilderness area, there are scattered communities, and some of the fires are threatening homes, campgrounds, and power lines. The high-resolution image provided above has a spatial resolution of 250 meters per pixel. The MODIS Rapid Response System provides images of the entire western United States at additional resolutions. [ http://rapidfire.sci.gsfc.nasa.gov/subsets/?USA1 ] NASA image courtesy the MODIS Rapid Response Team, [ http://rapidfire.sci.gsfc.nasa.gov ] Goddard Space Flight Center
Fires in Idaho and Eastern O …
Title Fires in Idaho and Eastern Oregon
Description MODIS Rapid Response Team [ http://rapidfire.sci.gsfc.nasa.gov ] at NASA GSFC, Strong winds fanned wildfires across the western United States on July 19, 2007. The hot, dry, windy conditions led the National Interagency Fire Center to move to a National Preparedness Level [ http://www.nifc.gov/fireinfo/pl_desc.html ] of 5 on a five-point scale, indicating that the fires were numerous, large, and widespread enough to potentially exhaust fire-fighting resources. More than a million acres were burning across the United States in 72 large wildfires on July 19, 2007, said the National Interagency Fire Center. [ http://www.nifc.gov/fire_info/nfn.htm ] Among the largest fires were the Rowland and Elk Mountain fires burning in southwestern Idaho. The active fronts of these fires are outlined in red in this pair of photo-like images acquired by the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS [ http://modis.gsfc.nasa.gov ]) on July 19, 2007. The top image was taken at 12:25 p.m., Mountain Daylight Time, when the MODIS on NASA's Terra [ http://terra.nasa.gov/ ] satellite passed over head. The active parts of the Elk Mountain fire surround a dark brown oval of charred land. The fast-moving flames had consumed much of this area in the previous 24 hours. A MODIS image taken on the afternoon of July 18, [ http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/NaturalHazards/natural_hazards_v2.php3?img_id=14396 ] reveals that the fire had been relatively small the previous day, and little land around the fire was charred. The Rowland fire, by contrast, was smaller on July 19 than it had been on July 18. At 2:05 p.m. on July 19, less than two hours after the top image was taken, the MODIS sensor aboard NASA's Aqua [ http://aqua.nasa.gov/ ] satellite captured the lower image. In the two-hour period between images, winds and fire activity picked up substantially. By the time of the second image, the fires were racing through grass and sagebrush and pumping out dense plumes of smoke. The smoke obscures the burned land and the surrounding desert landscape. Strong winds were pulling the smoke north in long plumes that stretch over the green and gold Snake River Plain. The National Interagency Fire Center (NIFC) reported that both the Rowland and Elk Mountain fires exhibited extreme fire behavior, [ http://www.nifc.gov/fireinfo/glossary.html#E ] with fast-moving or unpredictable flames, and that it threatened structures and power lines. On July 20, the Rowland fire had burned 95,000 acres and was 15 percent contained, while the Elk Mountain fire had burned 160,000 acres (up from 25,000 acres the day before) and was 10 percent contained, said NIFC. The large images provided above are at MODIS' maximum resolution (level of detail) of 250 meters per pixel. They stretch south to include much of Nevada and Utah. Both the 12:25 and 2:05 images are available in a variety of resolutions from the MODIS Rapid Response System. Images courtesy Jeff Schmaltz,
Fires in Idaho and Eastern O …
Title Fires in Idaho and Eastern Oregon
Description MODIS Rapid Response Team [ http://rapidfire.sci.gsfc.nasa.gov ] at NASA GSFC, Strong winds fanned wildfires across the western United States on July 19, 2007. The hot, dry, windy conditions led the National Interagency Fire Center to move to a National Preparedness Level [ http://www.nifc.gov/fireinfo/pl_desc.html ] of 5 on a five-point scale, indicating that the fires were numerous, large, and widespread enough to potentially exhaust fire-fighting resources. More than a million acres were burning across the United States in 72 large wildfires on July 19, 2007, said the National Interagency Fire Center. [ http://www.nifc.gov/fire_info/nfn.htm ] Among the largest fires were the Rowland and Elk Mountain fires burning in southwestern Idaho. The active fronts of these fires are outlined in red in this pair of photo-like images acquired by the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS [ http://modis.gsfc.nasa.gov ]) on July 19, 2007. The top image was taken at 12:25 p.m., Mountain Daylight Time, when the MODIS on NASA's Terra [ http://terra.nasa.gov/ ] satellite passed over head. The active parts of the Elk Mountain fire surround a dark brown oval of charred land. The fast-moving flames had consumed much of this area in the previous 24 hours. A MODIS image taken on the afternoon of July 18, [ http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/NaturalHazards/natural_hazards_v2.php3?img_id=14396 ] reveals that the fire had been relatively small the previous day, and little land around the fire was charred. The Rowland fire, by contrast, was smaller on July 19 than it had been on July 18. At 2:05 p.m. on July 19, less than two hours after the top image was taken, the MODIS sensor aboard NASA's Aqua [ http://aqua.nasa.gov/ ] satellite captured the lower image. In the two-hour period between images, winds and fire activity picked up substantially. By the time of the second image, the fires were racing through grass and sagebrush and pumping out dense plumes of smoke. The smoke obscures the burned land and the surrounding desert landscape. Strong winds were pulling the smoke north in long plumes that stretch over the green and gold Snake River Plain. The National Interagency Fire Center (NIFC) reported that both the Rowland and Elk Mountain fires exhibited extreme fire behavior, [ http://www.nifc.gov/fireinfo/glossary.html#E ] with fast-moving or unpredictable flames, and that it threatened structures and power lines. On July 20, the Rowland fire had burned 95,000 acres and was 15 percent contained, while the Elk Mountain fire had burned 160,000 acres (up from 25,000 acres the day before) and was 10 percent contained, said NIFC. The large images provided above are at MODIS' maximum resolution (level of detail) of 250 meters per pixel. They stretch south to include much of Nevada and Utah. Both the 12:25 and 2:05 images are available in a variety of resolutions from the MODIS Rapid Response System. Images courtesy Jeff Schmaltz,
Fires in Idaho and Eastern O …
Title Fires in Idaho and Eastern Oregon
Description MODIS Rapid Response Team [ http://rapidfire.sci.gsfc.nasa.gov ] at NASA GSFC, Strong winds fanned wildfires across the western United States on July 19, 2007. The hot, dry, windy conditions led the National Interagency Fire Center to move to a National Preparedness Level [ http://www.nifc.gov/fireinfo/pl_desc.html ] of 5 on a five-point scale, indicating that the fires were numerous, large, and widespread enough to potentially exhaust fire-fighting resources. More than a million acres were burning across the United States in 72 large wildfires on July 19, 2007, said the National Interagency Fire Center. [ http://www.nifc.gov/fire_info/nfn.htm ] Among the largest fires were the Rowland and Elk Mountain fires burning in southwestern Idaho. The active fronts of these fires are outlined in red in this pair of photo-like images acquired by the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS [ http://modis.gsfc.nasa.gov ]) on July 19, 2007. The top image was taken at 12:25 p.m., Mountain Daylight Time, when the MODIS on NASA's Terra [ http://terra.nasa.gov/ ] satellite passed over head. The active parts of the Elk Mountain fire surround a dark brown oval of charred land. The fast-moving flames had consumed much of this area in the previous 24 hours. A MODIS image taken on the afternoon of July 18, [ http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/NaturalHazards/natural_hazards_v2.php3?img_id=14396 ] reveals that the fire had been relatively small the previous day, and little land around the fire was charred. The Rowland fire, by contrast, was smaller on July 19 than it had been on July 18. At 2:05 p.m. on July 19, less than two hours after the top image was taken, the MODIS sensor aboard NASA's Aqua [ http://aqua.nasa.gov/ ] satellite captured the lower image. In the two-hour period between images, winds and fire activity picked up substantially. By the time of the second image, the fires were racing through grass and sagebrush and pumping out dense plumes of smoke. The smoke obscures the burned land and the surrounding desert landscape. Strong winds were pulling the smoke north in long plumes that stretch over the green and gold Snake River Plain. The National Interagency Fire Center (NIFC) reported that both the Rowland and Elk Mountain fires exhibited extreme fire behavior, [ http://www.nifc.gov/fireinfo/glossary.html#E ] with fast-moving or unpredictable flames, and that it threatened structures and power lines. On July 20, the Rowland fire had burned 95,000 acres and was 15 percent contained, while the Elk Mountain fire had burned 160,000 acres (up from 25,000 acres the day before) and was 10 percent contained, said NIFC. The large images provided above are at MODIS' maximum resolution (level of detail) of 250 meters per pixel. They stretch south to include much of Nevada and Utah. Both the 12:25 and 2:05 images are available in a variety of resolutions from the MODIS Rapid Response System. Images courtesy Jeff Schmaltz,
Fires in Montana and Idaho
Title Fires in Montana and Idaho
Description 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
Fires in Montana and Idaho
Title Fires in Montana and Idaho
Description Columns of thick smoke unfurled from forest fires burning across Idaho, Montana, and Wyoming and spread eastward across the plains at the foothills of the Northern Rocky Mountains on August 13, 2007. This image of the area was captured by the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) [ http://modis.gsfc.nasa.gov ] on NASA's Aqua [ http://aqua.nasa.gov ] satellite at 2:00 p.m. local time (U.S. Mountain Daylight Time). Locations where the sensor detected active fire are outlined in red. Fires are especially active in the Frank Church River of No Return Wilderness Area south of Idaho's Salmon River. Gray-brown smoke cuts a diagonal swath across the center of the image. Smoke from these fires has been crossing the United States off and on throughout August, degrading air quality as far away as the East Coast. 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 by Jeff Schmaltz, MODIS Rapid Response Team, [ http://rapidfire.sci.gsfc.nasa.gov ] Goddard Space Flight Center.
Fires in Montana and Idaho
Title Fires in Montana and Idaho
Description Intense wildfires (location in red) raged in Idaho and Montana when the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS [ http://modis.gsfc.nasa.gov ]) on NASA's Aqua [ http://aqua.nasa.gov/ ] satellite captured this image on August 4, 2007. According to reports from the National Interagency Fire Center [ http://www.nifc.gov/fire_info/nfn.htm ] on August 7, Idaho and Montana each had 14 large fires burning, with windy weather predicted to increase fire behavior in the area in subsequent days. In Montana, the fires had affected more than 255,000 acres, in Idaho, fires had affected nearly 400,000 acres. These fires produced smoke [ http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/NaturalHazards/natural_hazards_v2.php3?img_id=14434 ] that blanketed much of the United States. You can download a 250-meter-resolution KMZ file of the fires in Montana and Idaho [ http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/NaturalHazards/Archive/Aug2007/montana_amo_2007216.kmz ] suitable for use with Google Earth. [ http://earth.google.com/ ] NASA image created by Jesse Allen, using data provided courtesy of the MODIS Rapid Response [ http://rapidfire.sci.gsfc.nasa.gov/ ] team.
School Fire in Washington
Title School Fire in Washington
Description On August 10, 2005, the School Fire in southeastern Washington was still billowing thick smoke. When the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on NASA's Terra satellite captured this image, the sensor detected several areas of active fire (outlined in red). Additional fires were burning in Oregon and Idaho, though none were as large as the School Fire. For information on the status of fires across the United States, visit the Current Wildland Fire Information [ http://www.nifc.gov/information.html ] Website of the National Interagency Fire Center. The high-resolution image provided above has a spatial resolution of 250 meters per pixel. The MODIS Rapid Response System provides this image at additional resolutions. NASA image courtesy the MODIS Rapid Response Team, [ http://rapidfire.sci.gsfc.nasa.gov ] Goddard Space Flight Center
School Fire in Washington
Title School Fire in Washington
Description On August 10, 2005, the School Fire in southeastern Washington was still billowing thick smoke. When the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on NASA's Terra satellite captured this image, the sensor detected several areas of active fire (outlined in red). Additional fires were burning in Oregon and Idaho, though none were as large as the School Fire. For information on the status of fires across the United States, visit the Current Wildland Fire Information [ http://www.nifc.gov/information.html ] Website of the National Interagency Fire Center. The high-resolution image provided above has a spatial resolution of 250 meters per pixel. The MODIS Rapid Response System provides this image at additional resolutions. NASA image courtesy the MODIS Rapid Response Team, [ http://rapidfire.sci.gsfc.nasa.gov ] Goddard Space Flight Center
School Fire, Washington
Title School Fire, Washington
Description In southeastern Washington in early August 2005, the School Fire was raging through the Umatilla National Forest about 16 miles south of the town of Pomery. By August 11, 2005, the fire had consumed 42,000 acres, and was 40% contained. In addition, the fire destroyed 87 buildings, including 49 residences. Other buildings in the area are under evacuation orders, and several roads are closed. On August 10, 2005, the School Fire was still billowing thick smoke. When the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on NASA's Terra satellite captured this image, the sensor detected several areas of active fire (outlined in red). Additional fires were burning in Oregon and Idaho, though none were as large as the School Fire. Information on the status of fires across the United States, visit the Current Wildland Fire Information [ http://www.nifc.gov/information.html ] Website of the National Interagency Fire Center. The high-resolution image provided above has a spatial resolution of 250 meters per pixel. The MODIS Rapid Response System provides this image at additional resolutions. [ http://rapidfire.sci.gsfc.nasa.gov/subsets/?USA1/2005222 ] NASA image courtesy the MODIS Rapid Response Team, [ http://rapidfire.sci.gsfc.nasa.gov ] Goddard Space Flight Center
School Fire, Washington
Title School Fire, Washington
Description In southeastern Washington in early August 2005, the School Fire was raging through the Umatilla National Forest about 16 miles south of the town of Pomery. By August 11, 2005, the fire had consumed 42,000 acres, and was 40% contained. In addition, the fire destroyed 87 buildings, including 49 residences. Other buildings in the area are under evacuation orders, and several roads are closed. On August 10, 2005, the School Fire was still billowing thick smoke. When the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on NASA's Terra satellite captured this image, the sensor detected several areas of active fire (outlined in red). Additional fires were burning in Oregon and Idaho, though none were as large as the School Fire. Information on the status of fires across the United States, visit the Current Wildland Fire Information [ http://www.nifc.gov/information.html ] Website of the National Interagency Fire Center. The high-resolution image provided above has a spatial resolution of 250 meters per pixel. The MODIS Rapid Response System provides this image at additional resolutions. [ http://rapidfire.sci.gsfc.nasa.gov/subsets/?USA1/2005222 ] NASA image courtesy the MODIS Rapid Response Team, [ http://rapidfire.sci.gsfc.nasa.gov ] Goddard Space Flight Center
Smoke from fires in Idaho an …
Title Smoke from fires in Idaho and Montana
Description Some things are so large that the perspective from space is necessary to appreciate them. One of those things is the long-distance impact that pollutants like smoke or dust can have on air quality. On August 4, 2007, for example, fires raging in Montana and Idaho polluted the air over much of the United States. The Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS [ http://modis.gsfc.nasa.gov ]) onboard NASA's Aqua [ http://aqua.nasa.gov/ ] satellite captured this image of the smoke and fires on the afternoon of August 4. The lower image is a mosaic of four separate flyovers (separated by faint diagonal lines), while the top image is a close-up view of the smoke and haze along the northeastern seaboard. Strong winds on August 4 created uncontrollable firestorms that forced the evacuation of at least two communities in Montana, reported the Missoulian. Fires in Montana and Idaho are marked with red dots in the lower image and are more clearly visible in the large image. In addition to fueling the flames, the winds blew dense plumes of smoke northeast. The thickest plumes rise from the fires in northwestern Montana. By the time the smoke reached eastern Montana, the plumes were no longer distinct. The air was clouded with a soupy, gray haze that curves north into Canada. High-level winds pushed the smoke south over the western Great Lakes, and into the central and southern United States. From the bank of clouds over Illinois to the Gulf of Mexico, the air was white-gray with haze. From the central United States, the plume of pollution snaked over the Mid-Atlantic States and the Chesapeake Bay to the Atlantic Ocean, where it turned north and flowed along the coast. Some additional haze may line the coast south of Cape Hatteras, but reflected sunlight has turned the ocean's surface into a mirror, effectively masking the presence of any haze. The top image provides a closer view of the haze over the Atlantic Ocean from the Delmarva Peninsula along the eastern shore of the Chesapeake Bay, to the Gulf of Maine, north of Cape Cod. By this point, smoke from the western wildfires is probably only one component of the haze. High temperatures and stagnant air also amplified the impact of urban pollution, creating Code Orange [ http://airnow.gov/index.cfm?action=static.aqi#unh ] air quality conditions, which are unhealthy for sensitive groups such as active children or adults or individuals with respiratory ailments. The jetstream—the fast-moving, high-level winds that steer weather systems—is defined by the stark boundary between the hazy air over the Mid-Atlantic and the clear air over New England. Jetstream winds are clearly blocking the smoke from traveling north. NASA image courtesy the MODIS Rapid Response Team [ http://rapidfire.sci.gsfc.nasa.gov ] at NASA GSFC, which provides daily images [ http://rapidfire.sci.gsfc.nasa.gov/fas/ ] of the United States in a clickable map.
Smoke from fires in Idaho an …
Title Smoke from fires in Idaho and Montana
Description Some things are so large that the perspective from space is necessary to appreciate them. One of those things is the long-distance impact that pollutants like smoke or dust can have on air quality. On August 4, 2007, for example, fires raging in Montana and Idaho polluted the air over much of the United States. The Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS [ http://modis.gsfc.nasa.gov ]) onboard NASA's Aqua [ http://aqua.nasa.gov/ ] satellite captured this image of the smoke and fires on the afternoon of August 4. The lower image is a mosaic of four separate flyovers (separated by faint diagonal lines), while the top image is a close-up view of the smoke and haze along the northeastern seaboard. Strong winds on August 4 created uncontrollable firestorms that forced the evacuation of at least two communities in Montana, reported the Missoulian. Fires in Montana and Idaho are marked with red dots in the lower image and are more clearly visible in the large image. In addition to fueling the flames, the winds blew dense plumes of smoke northeast. The thickest plumes rise from the fires in northwestern Montana. By the time the smoke reached eastern Montana, the plumes were no longer distinct. The air was clouded with a soupy, gray haze that curves north into Canada. High-level winds pushed the smoke south over the western Great Lakes, and into the central and southern United States. From the bank of clouds over Illinois to the Gulf of Mexico, the air was white-gray with haze. From the central United States, the plume of pollution snaked over the Mid-Atlantic States and the Chesapeake Bay to the Atlantic Ocean, where it turned north and flowed along the coast. Some additional haze may line the coast south of Cape Hatteras, but reflected sunlight has turned the ocean's surface into a mirror, effectively masking the presence of any haze. The top image provides a closer view of the haze over the Atlantic Ocean from the Delmarva Peninsula along the eastern shore of the Chesapeake Bay, to the Gulf of Maine, north of Cape Cod. By this point, smoke from the western wildfires is probably only one component of the haze. High temperatures and stagnant air also amplified the impact of urban pollution, creating Code Orange [ http://airnow.gov/index.cfm?action=static.aqi#unh ] air quality conditions, which are unhealthy for sensitive groups such as active children or adults or individuals with respiratory ailments. The jetstream—the fast-moving, high-level winds that steer weather systems—is defined by the stark boundary between the hazy air over the Mid-Atlantic and the clear air over New England. Jetstream winds are clearly blocking the smoke from traveling north. NASA image courtesy the MODIS Rapid Response Team [ http://rapidfire.sci.gsfc.nasa.gov ] at NASA GSFC, which provides daily images [ http://rapidfire.sci.gsfc.nasa.gov/fas/ ] of the United States in a clickable map.
Smoke over the Dakotas
Title Smoke over the Dakotas
Description Thanks to fires [ http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/NaturalHazards/natural_hazards_v2.php3?img_id=14443 ] in western Montana and Idaho in August 2007, pollutants traveled eastward across much of the United States, affecting air quality hundreds of miles from the flames. According to the U.S. Air Quality (Smog Blog) at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County, air quality [ http://alg.umbc.edu/usaq/archives/002351.html ] along the U.S. East Coast suffered from the northwestern fires. This image tracks the smoke east from Idaho and Montana across North and South Dakota, Minnesota, Iowa, and Wisconsin by showing carbon monoxide concentrations, one component of the smoke, as observed by the Measurements Of Pollution In The Troposphere (MOPITT) instrument aboard NASA's Terra [ http://terra.nasa.gov ] satellite between August 1 and August 20, 2007. The colors represent the carbon monoxide concentrations in parts per billion by volume at an altitude of approximately 3 kilometers (1.9 miles). Lowest concentrations appear in yellow and highest concentrations appear in red. Black indicates areas where persistent cloud cover prevented thorough measurements. An arc of high carbon monoxide levels reaches from central Idaho, through Montana, and dips southward across South Dakota. This area matches smoke plumes that were visible across the area in mid-August. Concentrations remain high as far east as the Great Lakes region. Along the top left edge of the image, patches of dark red across Alberta and Saskatchewan are probably also the result of forest fire activity in August. Fires produce large amounts of carbon monoxide, which remains in the atmosphere for about two months on average. By contrast, the gray particles that make the smoke visible in the air disappear after about a week. Because carbon monoxide stays in the atmosphere so long, scientists can track a plume of smoke much farther by measuring carbon monoxide than by looking for visible signs of the smoke. Compared to the particles, carbon monoxide also acts more like other gaseous pollutants in the smoke that might be hard to measure directly. As a result, measurements of carbon monoxide provide an estimate of how much of these pollutants were emitted by the fires. In addition to revealing pollution from a single event, the view of carbon monoxide from space gives remote-sensing scientists a way to trace the global transport of smoke-related pollution. NASA image created by Jesse Allen, using data provided by the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR) and the University of Toronto MOPITT Teams [ http://www.eos.ucar.edu/mopitt/ ]
Snow Across the Western Unit …
Title Snow Across the Western United States
Description The Sunday after Thanksgiving is traditionally one of the busiest travel days of the year in the United States as people return home from the four-day weekend. Sunday, November 28, 2004, was no exception, but this year, Mother Nature snarled traffic across a large swath of the west with an intense snow storm. The storm dumped up to 24 inches (0.6 meters) of snow on the mountains of southern Utah, and blanketed the surrounding states. The Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS [ http://modis.gsfc.nasa.gov ]) on NASA's Terra [ http://terra.nasa.gov/ ] satellite captured this image the following day, on November 29, after the clouds moved out. The storm's path is clearly visible in this image: a track of white extends from southeastern Oregon and the Sierra Nevada Mountains in California to Colorado and New Mexico in the east. The National Weather Service reports that the storm moved east across the Plains States of Nebraska, Kansas, Oklahoma, Texas, Missouri, and Iowa on November 29 and November 30. The snow highlights some interesting features of the Western United States that might not otherwise be obvious in satellite imagery. Sandwiched between the straight diagonal line of the Sierra Nevada Mountains in the west (the straight edge of the snow) and the Rocky Mountains in Central Utah in the east is the Great Basin Desert. This high desert basin covers a heart-shaped region of southern Oregon, Nevada, Utah, and southern Idaho and is clearly outlined in snow. Hemmed between two large mountain ranges that trap moisture from the east and the west, it is the United States' largest desert. It receives on average 7-12 inches of precipitation every year. The water that does fall in the region drains to interior, closed basins instead of the ocean, giving the region its name. The Great Basin Desert is made up of a series of mostly north-south running mountain ranges and valleys that give the land a wrinkled, wash-board appearance, particularly in Nevada. The snow highlights elevation change elsewhere in the image. The imposing Rocky Mountains appear slightly darker than the valleys around them, and the peaks and high plateaus in the south are covered in snow while the pink desert lowlands remain bare. On the right edge of the image, the flat plains of eastern Wyoming and Colorado are an even, uninterrupted white. NASA image created by Jesse Allen, Earth Observatory, using data obtained from the Goddard Land Processes DAAC
Fires in the Western United …
Title Fires in the Western United States
Description The western United States was wilting under widespread hot temperatures in late July 2006. In blazing heat, firefighters were working to contain numerous wildfires in several Western states, including Washington, Oregon, California, Nevada, and Idaho. This image of the area was captured on July 27 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 fires are marked in red. Four of the largest blazes (as of July 28) have been labeled: the 12,000-acre Tripod Fire in Washington, the 28,958-acre Foster Gulch Complex near the Oregon-Idaho state line, the 4,550-acre Sage Fire in California, and the 30,000-acre Winters Fire in northern Nevada. For more information on fires in the United States, visit the National Interagency Fire Center [ http://www.nifc.gov/information.html ] Website. The high-resolution image provided above has a spatial resolution of 500 meters per pixel. The MODIS Rapid Response System provides this image at additional resolutions, including MODIS' maximum spatial resolution of 250 meters per pixel. NASA image courtesy the MODIS Rapid Response Team, [ http://rapidfire.sci.gsfc.nasa.gov ] Goddard Space Flight Center
Fires in the Western United …
Title Fires in the Western United States
Description In early September 2006, firefighters in the western United States had their hands full. This image from the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) [ http://modis.gsfc.nasa.gov ] on NASA's Terra [ http://terra.nasa.gov ] satellite shows large wildfires (red dots) burning in Washington, Oregon, California, Idaho, Montana, and Nevada on September 5. Some clouds are scattered across the area, some of them likely building into afternoon thunderstorms, which may help or hinder firefighters, depending on how much rain, wind, or lightning the storms produce. Several of the largest fires are labeled in the image, and three are shown in the close-up images below the wide-area image at top. The National Interagency Fire Center [ http://www.nifc.gov/information.html ] report from September 6 stated that the 32,019-acre Bar Complex Fire in California was threatening structures and a watershed, the 67,500-acre Amazon Fire and the 100,000-acre Sheep Fire were threatening structures, livestock, fisheries, power lines, mines, and grazing lands, and the 92,225-acre Columbia Complex Fire was threatening residences, a ski area, a wind energy site, and commercial resources. The high-resolution image provided above has a spatial resolution of 250 meters per pixel. The MODIS Rapid Response System provides daily images of sub-sections of the entire United States at additional resolutions via a clickable map. [ http://rapidfire.sci.gsfc.nasa.gov/subsets/ ] NASA image courtesy the MODIS Rapid Response Team, [ http://rapidfire.sci.gsfc.nasa.gov ] Goddard Space Flight Center
Fires in the Western United …
Title Fires in the Western United States
Description Thick, white smoke seeps through the valleys of the Rocky Mountains ranges that run through Idaho, Washington, and Oregon in this photo-like image taken on September 12, 2006. At the time, firefighters were monitoring 29 wild fires in the three states, said the National Interagency Fire Center. [ http://www.nifc.gov/fireinfo/nfn.html ] Many of the fires were started by lightning, as suggested by the clusters of fires (red dots) seen in this image. The image was taken in the early afternoon by the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS [ http://modis.gsfc.nasa.gov ]) on NASA's Terra [ http://terra.nasa.gov/ ] satellite. Most of the fires are burning in the deep-green, pine-covered mountains. Sage, scrub, and grass-covered desert is tan, while agricultural land creates a pattern of tiny, bright green and gold dots. Between January 1 and September 12, 2006, a total of 8,653,883 acres of land had burned in the United States, exceeding the totals for the same period of any other year since 2000. Many of the fires that burned in remote areas were simply monitored as part of a long-term land-management strategy, but those that threatened structures were actively combated. Some of the large fires shown here include the Columbia Complex, [ http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/NaturalHazards/natural_hazards_v2.php3?img_id=13804 ] which had burned 103,100 acres and was 80 percent contained on September 12, the Elkhorn Complex, which had burned 870 acres and was 15 percent contained, the Payette Complex, which had burned 10,729 acres, the South Fork Complex, 41,600 acres and 20 percent contained, the Boundary Complex, 22,785 acres and 5 percent contained, the Red Mountain Fire, 32,825 acres and 30 percent contained, and the Rattlesnake Complex, 37,421 acres and 30 percent contained. Several other large fires burned in the western United States on September 12. The Derby Fire [ http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/NaturalHazards/natural_hazards_v2.php3?img_id=13832 ] in western Montana (just beyond the right edge of the image) had threatened homes and forced hundred of evacuations in early September. By September 12, it had burned 207,644 acres and was 70 percent contained, said the National Interagency Fire Center. The Day Fire [ http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/NaturalHazards/natural_hazards_v2.php3?img_id=13848 ] was burning in Los Padres National Forest about 40 miles north of Los Angeles, California. Its thick smoke temporarily closed Interstate 5 on September 12. NASA image created by Jesse Allen, Earth Observatory, using data provided courtesy of the MODIS Rapid Response [ http://rapidfire.sci.gsfc.nasa.gov/ ] team.
Fires in Western Canada
Title Fires in Western Canada
Description On August 1, 2003, dozens of large fires were burning across western North America in Canada (top half of image) and the United States (bottom half). Huge plumes of smoke were streaming northeastward from massive fires in Canada's British Columbia (left) and Alberta (right) provinces, while across the international border, fires were burning in (left to right) Washington, Idaho, and Montana. This image was acquired by the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on the Aqua satellite. The high-resolution image provided above is 500 meters per pixel. The MODIS Rapid Response System provides this image at MODIS' maximum spatial resolution of 250 meters. Image courtesy Jeff Schmaltz, MODIS Rapid Response Team, NASA GSFC
Fires in Western Canada
Title Fires in Western Canada
Description The large fires currently burning in Western Canada and the Northwestern United States are producing a significant amount of air pollution, as indicated by the elevated levels of carbon monoxide over the region. This false-color image shows the concentrations of carbon monoxide at an altitude of roughly 3 km (700 millibars) in the atmosphere. These data were taken by the Measurements Of Pollution In The Troposphere (MOPITT) instrument aboard NASA?s Terra satellite for the period Aug. 1-7, 2003. The colors represent the mixing ratios of carbon monoxide in the air, given in parts per billion by volume. The gray areas in the image show where no data were collected, either due to persistent cloud cover or gaps between satellite viewing swaths. Carbon monoxide is produced as a result of incomplete combustion during burning. It is important to scientists due to its impact on the chemistry in the lower atmosphere. Carbon monoxide is a good indicator of air pollution and its presence adversely affects the atmosphere's ability to cleanse itself. The regions of high carbon monoxide are observed downwind of the fires currently burning in Canada's British Columbia (left) and Alberta (right) provinces, while across the border in the United States, intense plumes of carbon monoxide are being emitted from the fires burning in Idaho and Montana. Because carbon monoxide is persistent in the air for several weeks, it clearly shows the transport of pollution plumes from the region of the fires northeastwards over Canada. Image courtesy the NCAR [ http://www.eos.ucar.edu/mopitt/ ] and University of Toronto [ http://www.atmosp.physics.utoronto.ca/MOPITT/home.html ] MOPITT Teams
Murphy Complex Fire: Natural …
nasa, nasanaturalhazards
When two large, previously s …
murphy_AMO_2007203
mediatype IMAGE
mediatype image
date 2007-07-22
creator NASA -- NASA Image Of The Day
identifier murphy_AMO_2007203
Fires in Montana and Idaho: …
nasa, nasanaturalhazards
In the northern Rocky Mounta …
Montana_AMO_2007212
mediatype IMAGE
mediatype image
date 2007-07-31
creator NASA -- NASA Image Of The Day
identifier Montana_AMO_2007212
Black Pine 2 Fire, Idaho: Na …
nasa, nasanaturalhazards
East of the Raft River in so …
idaho_TMO_2007191
mediatype IMAGE
mediatype image
date 2007-07-11
creator NASA -- NASA Image Of The Day
identifier idaho_TMO_2007191
Drought in the Pacific North …
nasa, nasanaturalhazards
As summer headed toward fall …
uspnwndvia_tmo_2007225
mediatype IMAGE
mediatype image
date 2007-08-28
creator NASA -- NASA Image Of The Day
identifier uspnwndvia_tmo_2007225
Haze over the Great Lakes: N …
nasa, nasanaturalhazards
Haze collected over the Grea …
grlakes_tmo_2007212
mediatype IMAGE
mediatype image
date 2007-07-31
creator NASA -- NASA Image Of The Day
identifier grlakes_tmo_2007212
Haze over Utah: Natural Haza …
nasa, nasanaturalhazards
Haze clouded the skies over …
ge_19025
mediatype IMAGE
mediatype image
date 2007-09-08
creator NASA -- NASA Image Of The Day
identifier ge_19025
Haze over Utah: Natural Haza …
nasa, nasanaturalhazards
Haze clouded the skies over …
ge_19025
mediatype IMAGE
mediatype image
date 2007-09-08
creator NASA -- NASA Image Of The Day
identifier ge_19025
Fires in Idaho and Eastern O …
nasa, nasanaturalhazards
* eoimages.gsfc.nasa.gov/ima …
Idaho_amo_tmo_2007200
mediatype IMAGE
mediatype image
date 2007-07-19
creator NASA -- NASA Image Of The Day
identifier Idaho_amo_tmo_2007200
Fires in Idaho: Natural Haza …
nasa, nasanaturalhazards
In wilderness areas of centr …
Rimrock_AMO_2006226
mediatype IMAGE
mediatype image
date 2006-08-14
creator NASA -- NASA Image Of The Day
identifier Rimrock_AMO_2006226
Smoke from fires in Idaho an …
nasa, nasanaturalhazards
* eoimages.gsfc.nasa.gov/ima …
USA_AMO_2007216
mediatype IMAGE
mediatype image
date 2007-08-04
creator NASA -- NASA Image Of The Day
identifier USA_AMO_2007216
Fires in Montana and Idaho: …
nasa, nasanaturalhazards
Intense wildfires (location …
montana_amo_2007216
mediatype IMAGE
mediatype image
date 2007-08-04
creator NASA -- NASA Image Of The Day
identifier montana_amo_2007216
Nez Perce Reservation : Imag …
nasa, nasaimageofthedaygalle …
The Clearwater River cuts ca …
nezperce_l7_1999190
mediatype IMAGE
mediatype image
date 1999-07-09
creator NASA -- NASA image created by Jesse Allen, Earth Observatory, using data obtained from the University of Maryland's glcf.umiacs.umd.edu/index.shtml Global Land Cover Facility.
identifier nezperce_l7_1999190
Fires in Western Canada: Nat …
nasa, nasanaturalhazards
On August 1, 2003, dozens of …
UnitedStates.AMOA2003213
mediatype IMAGE
mediatype image
date 2003-08-01
creator NASA -- NASA Image Of The Day
identifier UnitedStates.AMOA2003213
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