Fire activity ramped up across the U.S. West near the end of the third week of July 2007. Dry thunderstorms (lightning and winds, but no rain) ignited hundreds of fires in a matter of days, and many of these became large blazes that raced through dry grass, sagebrush, and forests. This image of southern Idaho and eastern Oregon shows several large fires (outlined in red) billowing out thick clouds of smoke on July 18, 2007. The image and fire detections were captured by the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on NASA’s Aqua satellite.
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 images of the region in additional resolutions and formats, including an infrared-enhanced version that makes burned landscapes stand out in brick red.
References & Resources
NASA image courtesy the MODIS Rapid Response Team, Goddard Space Flight Center
