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Fires in Los Angeles County

Instruments:
Natural Color
September 3, 2009
False Color
These true- and false-color images show the smoke and burn scar associated with the Station Fire on September 3, 2009.
NASA image created by Jesse Allen, using EO-1 ALI data provided courtesy of the NASA EO-1 Team. Caption by Michon Scott.

The Station Fire, which raged in the hills north of the city of Los Angeles, left behind a changed landscape. The Advanced Land Imager (ALI) on NASA’s Earth Observing-1 (EO-1) satellite acquired these true- and false-color images on September 3, 2009. The true-color image (top) shows skies choked with thick smoke north of the city. The white outline in the true-color image indicates the area covered by the false color image immediately below. This image combines shortwave-infrared light, near-infrared light, and red light. In this image, a purple-red burn scar fills most of the image, outlined by deep pink hotspots showing the fire’s actively burning front. Land not yet burned appears bright green.

References & Resources

NASA image created by Jesse Allen, using EO-1 ALI data provided courtesy of the NASA EO-1 Team. Caption by Michon Scott.

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