Brush fires consumed nearly 750,000 acres across Southern California
between October 21 and November 18, 2003. Burn scars and vegetation
changes wrought by the fires are illustrated in these false-color images
captured on October 17 (top) and November 18 (bottom) by the Multi-angle
Imaging SpectroRadiometer (MISR). The images were created by displaying
red, near-infrared and green spectral band data from MISR's nadir
(downward-looking) camera as red, green and blue, respectively. Living
vegetation appears in shades of green and urban areas appear pale grey
and pink. Recently burnt areas can be identified by their dramatic
changes from vivid green to brown hues several weeks later. The
locations of the largest fires are indicated by an annotated version of
the November 18 image.
The Multi-angle Imaging SpectroRadiometer observes the daylit Earth
continuously and every 9 days views the entire Earth between 82 degrees
north and 82 degrees south latitude. These data products were generated
from a portion of the imagery acquired during Terra orbits 20379 and
20845. The panels cover an area of about 241 kilometers x 162
kilometers, and utilize data from blocks 63 to 64 within World Reference
System-2 path 41.
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.
Text acknowledgment: Clare Averill (Raytheon / Jet Propulsion Laboratory).
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