Suggested Searches

1 min read

Fires in California

Instruments:
Topics:
2004-07-20 00:00:00
July 20, 2004

In the third week of July 2004, several fires sprang up at the urban-wildland interface around Los Angeles, California. The Pine, Fooothill, and Crown fires, all flared up suddenly and quickly grew to several thousand acres. This image shows the area burned by the Pine Fire, which was started by arson on July 12. The burned area appears bluish-charcoal, while the forested slopes of the mountains appear red. The blue line running across the valley floor in the top half of the image is the California Aqueduct. This image was captured on July 20, 2004, by the MODIS-ASTER Airborne Simulator, which flies on NASA’s ER-2 aircraft. The image uses data from bands 5, 4, and 1 from the MASTER instrument.

References & Resources

Image by Jesse Allen, based on data from the MASTER Team.

You may also be interested in:

Stay up-to-date with the latest content from NASA as we explore the universe and discover more about our home planet.

B.C. Wildfires Send Smoke Skyward
2 min read

Lightning likely ignited several large fires that sent smoke pouring over the Canadian province in early September 2025.

Article
Sprawling Gifford Fire Scorches California
3 min read

The fast-growing blaze charred more than 100,000 acres in the span of a week.

Article
Seeing the Monroe Canyon Fire in a New Light
5 min read

As wildland fires raged in the American West, NASA airborne technology was there to image it in incredible detail.

Article