NASA's Aqua Sees Mineral Fire's Smoke Travel to San Francisco (IMAGE)
Caption
NASA's Aqua satellite took this image of the smoke streaming off from the Mineral Fire in California on July 15, 2020. This image was captured by Aqua's MODIS (Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer) instrument. The Worldview website is able to measure distances, and it measured the smoke coming off the Mineral Fire which has traveled over 152 miles reaching San Francisco.
The Mineral Fire which is located just west of Coalinga, California began on July 13, 2020 and the origin is still under investigation. As of 7:16p.m. on July 17 (PDT) CA Fire reports that 18,085 acres have burned and the fire is 25% contained. Mineral Fire continues to burn in difficult to access areas and areas that have no fire history. Containment efforts for this fire are being hampered by extreme fire behavior. The local weather forecast shows that high temperatures are expected through July 21 (above 100 degrees Fahrenheit), winds from 4 to 18 mph, low humidity, and no precipitation, all of which tend to assist the further growth of a fire.
NASA's satellite instruments are often the first to detect wildfires burning in remote regions, and the locations of new fires are sent directly to land managers worldwide within hours of the satellite overpass. Together, NASA instruments detect actively burning fires, track the transport of smoke from fires, provide information for fire management, and map the extent of changes to ecosystems, based on the extent and severity of burn scars. NASA has a fleet of Earth-observing instruments, many of which contribute to our understanding of fire in the Earth system. Satellites in orbit around the poles provide observations of the entire planet several times per day, whereas satellites in a geostationary orbit provide coarse-resolution imagery of fires, smoke and clouds every five to 15 minutes. For more information visit: https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/fires/main/missions/index.html
NASA's Earth Observing System Data and Information System (EOSDIS) Worldview application provides the capability to interactively browse over 700 global, full-resolution satellite imagery layers and then download the underlying data. Many of the available imagery layers are updated within three hours of observation, essentially showing the entire Earth as it looks "right now." Actively burning fires, detected by thermal bands, are shown as red points.
Credit
<p>Image Courtesy: NASA Worldview, Earth Observing System Data and Information System (EOSDIS). <p>Caption: Lynn Jenner with information from CAL Fire.
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