The Missionary Ridge Fire, 10 miles north of Durango, Colorado,has been burning since June 9. By July 4, 2002 the fire had consumedalmost 73,000 acres in the San Juan National Forest, and destroyed 56 homes. At that time the blaze was 55 percent contained, butstill threatened several subdivisions. This Advanced Spaceborne Thermal Emission andReflection Radiometer (ASTER) image combines daytime andnighttime images acquired on June 30, 2002. The simulated natural color daytime imageshows burned areas in dark blue and healthy vegetation in green. The red areasare active fires and hot areas captured during the nighttime data acquisitionusing ASTER’s thermal infrared channels. The right side of the image was onlycaptured at night. The image covers an area of 40 x 38 km (25 x 24 miles).
More news about current wildfires in the United States is available from theNational Fire Information Center.
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Image courtesy NASA/GSFC/MITI/ERSDAC/JAROS, and U.S./Japan ASTER Science Team
