large images:
May 3, 2002 (1.8 MB JPEG)
May 8, 2002 (2.6 MB JPEG)
For the past week, fires have raged across southeast Georgia, consumingnearly 40,000 acres of the Okefenokee National Wildlife Refuge. This true-colorimage of the largest fire near Blackjack Island, Georgia, was acquired on May 3,2002 (top), by the Moderate-resolution Imaging Spectroradiomter (MODIS), flying aboardNASA’s Terra satellite. The fire was ignited by lightning strikes and hasspread quickly over a large area of scrub brush in the swamp. Due to theunseasonably dry conditions and the difficult swamp terrain, firefighters havebeen struggling to keep the fire from spreading any further across the400,000-acre refuge. Although the fire is now endangering some buildings innearby Stephen Foster State Park, no one has been injured or killed. By May 8th (lower)the area covered by the fire itself—denoted by red pixels—had shrunk, butsmoke continued to billow from the site.
References & Resources
Image courtesy Jacques Descloitres, MODIS Land Rapid Response Team at NASA GSFC
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