In the Klamath Mountains of northern California, two fire complexes were billowing thick smoke on August 15, 2006, when the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on NASA’s Aqua satellite passed overhead and captured this image. Places where MODIS detected actively burning fire are outlined in red, and gray-white smoke spreads eastward. Both the Orleans and Bar Fires are complexes made of several individual blazes. According to the National Interagency Fire Center report from August 16, the total estimated area for the Orleans Complex Fire was 11,000 acres. The estimated area for the Bar Complex was 15,160 acres.
The high-resolution image provided above has a spatial resolution of 250 meters per pixel. The MODIS Rapid Response System provides twice-daily images of the entire western United States at additional resolutions.
References & Resources
NASA image courtesy the MODIS Rapid Response Team, Goddard Space Flight Center
