NASA MODIS Image of the Day: August 29, 2008 – Fires in Idaho

Images

A handful of wildfires sprang up in Idaho in the third week of August 2008, affecting hundreds of acres in forests and wilderness areas west of the Bitterroot Range Mountains.

This image from the MODIS on NASA’s Aqua satellite shows the area on August 18.

Places where MODIS detected active fires are marked in red. According to the August 20 morning report from the National Interagency Fire Center, the Diamond Fire was 693 acres; the Hell’s Half Saddle Fire was 1,110 acres; and the Porcupine Fire was 300 acres. Because much of the area is wilderness, not all fires that occur are aggressively battled. Some are allowed to burn to benefit the ecosystem according to pre-determined natural resource plans.