School Fire in Washington
School Fire inWashington
10 August 2005
According to the National Interagency Fire Center report of 9 August 2005, theSchool Fire in southeastern Washingtons Umatilla National Forest had grown to47,000 acres. Firefighters had the blaze about 20 percent contained, butconditions were difficult. The steep terrain of the Blue Mountains and debrisrolling down slopes were hampering containment efforts.
NASA image courtesy the MODIS Rapid Response Team, Goddard Space Flight Center.
This pair of images shows the School Fire on the afternoon of 8 August 2005,captured by the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on NASAs Aqua satellite.The top image is a photo-like view, showing the forested mountains and the thicksmoke pouring from them. The bottom image is enhanced with MODIS’ observationsof short- and near-infrared energy. Vegetation appears bright green, water isdark blue, naturally bare soil (or very sparse vegetation) is tan, and burnedareas are deep reddish brown. Places where MODIS detected active fire areoutlined in red. Within these hot spot outlines, a bright pink glow isvisible; this often indicates the location of extremely hot, openly flaming fire(Source: EarthObservatory).
OSEI-NOAA reports that the wildfirein Washington State has already destroyed 41,000 acres and a large number ofresidences. Firefighters have been able to contain 35% of the fire. So far thisyear 5.2 million acres have been destroyed nation wide due to wildfires. Thefollowing satellite image is from 9 August 2005.
(Source: OSEI-NOAA)
