These Multi-angle Imaging SpectroRadiometer images of the Central
Valley and the Sierra Nevada Mountains show several smoke plumes from
wildfires burning throughout Northern California on August 13, 2001.
The overview image represents an area of 336 kilometers by 332
kilometers, and was acquired by MISR's 46-degree backward-looking
camera during Terra orbit 8802.
The most prominent plume arises from the Emigrant Gap Fire, located
about 40 kilometers west of Lake Tahoe. The animated panorama uses
different MISR cameras to enable this plume to be seen from multiple
vantage points as the satellite flies overhead. The animation begins
with the view from MISR's 70-degree forward camera, which captured
the plume from the north, and moves through six additional camera
angles before reaching the 60-degree backward camera, which imaged
the plume's southern face. The frames in the animated image were
acquired over a time period of about six minutes, and include an area
of 79 kilometers by 105 kilometers. The apparent northward
displacement of the terrain as the animation plays is due to
geometric parallax resulting from the topographic elevation of the
scene and the manner in which the images from the different cameras
are superimposed. Features with the highest altitudes exhibit the
most parallax. A bright "flash" from several water bodies can also be
seen at one of the camera angles; this particular angle is catching
sunglint from these mirror-like surfaces.
The Emigrant Gap Fire started during the early afternoon of August 12
and was the result of human activity. It was contained within four
days, and burned about 2,500 acres in total. Also visible in the overview
image are smoke plumes from the Blue Complex Fires (upper right) and the
Trough Fire (lower left). The round hill in the Central Valley is
Sutter Buttes, and the single snowcapped peak in the upper left is
Mount Shasta.
As of August 30, the US Forest Service reported the total
year-to-date area burned in Northern California to be in excess of
200,000 acres, or 800 square kilometers.
MISR was built and is managed by NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory,
Pasadena, CA, for NASA's Office of Earth Science, Washington, DC.
The Terra satellite is managed by NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center,
Greenbelt, MD. JPL is a division of the California Institute of
Technology.
Image credit: NASA/GSFC/LaRC/JPL, MISR Team.
|
