Fires in Montana and Idaho
Fires in Montana and Idaho
2 August 2007
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 areas remote, rugged terrain, much of which is federally designated wilderness area. This image of the area was captured on1 August 2007, by the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on NASAs Aqua satellite. Places where MODIS detected actively burning fire are outlined in red. Dozens of large fires filled the skies with thick smoke.
AQUA
1 August 2007
According to the 1 August report from the National Interagency Fire Center, 11 large fires totaling more than 880,000 thousand acres were burning in Idaho. Five of these had been designated Wildland FireUse fires, which means they will be allowed to burn according to pre-existing natural resource managementplans. 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 healthystate.
The large image provided above is at MODIS maximum resolution of 250 meters perpixel.
(source: EarthObservatory)
