Fires in California
Fires in the USA
31 October 2007
Fires in Southern California
In addition to the dangers that a wildfires flames pose topeople, wildlife, and property, the smoke that they billow out poses a healthhazard over an even larger area. During the fires in Southern California duringthe fourth week of October, the air quality deteriorated to levels that theEnvironmental Protection Agency categorizes as unhealthy in many areas.
Aura
25-27 October 2007
This series of images shows the spread of smoke between 25-27 October, astracked by the Ozone Monitoring Instrument on NASAs Aura satellite. OMI measures how much the smoke particles impede light passingthrough the atmosphere. Places where smoke particles (aerosols) were thickestare colored pink; relatively clear air is transparent, and clouds are white. OnOctober 25 (top), strong Santa Ana winds had driven smoke westward over thePacific Ocean. As the Santa Ana winds relaxed later in the week, however, smokespread northeast as far Utah and Colorado (bottom images).
The large images provided above have a spatial resolution (level of detail) of250 meters per pixel.
(source: EarthObservatory)
See also the latest news reports from the media:
- Fire was started by boy with matches, detectives say (published by www.latimes.com, 30 October 2007)
- Panel: Military Firefighters a Priority (published by ap.google.com, 30 October 2007)
- ANALYSIS: Wildfires raise questions with no easy answers (published by www.digitaljournal.com, 30 October 2007)
- Weather is on firefighters’ side — for now (published by www.latimes.com, 30 October 2007)
- U.S. Forest Service Has Money to Burn (published by www.cato.org, 29 October 2007)
- Smoke From Calif. Wildfires Causes Haze In Colorado (published by www.thedenverchannel.com, 29 October 2007)
- Forest-fire warning cut from testimony (published by www.mercurynews.com, 26 October 2007)
- Fire threat to homes diminishes (published by www.latimes.com, 26 October 2007)
- California rejects top Russian firefighting plane (published by www.russiatoday.ru, 25 October 2007)
- Forest thinning helps spare some homes (published by www.latimes.com, 25 October 2007)
- California bushfires recall al-Qaeda arson threat (published by news.ninemsn.com.au, 25 October 2007)
- A ‘girly-girl’ reformed: Working the wildland crew (published by seattlepi.nwsource.com, 25 October 2007)
- FEMA Chief Pleased with Wildfire Response (published by www.npr.org, 25 October 2007)
- Alberta has fire help on standby (published by www.edmontonsun.com, 25 October 2007)
- Grief smolders for colleagues of Esperanza Fire victims (published by www.pe.com, 25 October 2007)