NASA MODIS Image of the Day: August 16, 2008 – Fires in California
Forest fires in Northern California were slowly being contained in the first weeks of August 2008.
Many of the fires started in the first week of summer when a rash of lightning strikes ignited hundreds of fires in the state.
This image was captured by the MODIS on NASA’s Aqua satellite on August 10. Places where the sensor detected actively burning fire are outlined in red. According to the National Interagency Fire Center’s report for August 11, the Iron and Alps Complexes (responsible for the middle group of smoke plumes) had a combined acreage of 95,171 acres. The next largest fire was the Yolla Bolly Complex (the lower cloud of smoke), which was 86,192 acres. Other large fires included the Siskiyou Complex (61,404 acres), the Panther Fire (21,802 acres), and the Pather Fire, the Ukonom Complex (49,929 acres), all of which are located in the top cloud of smoke.
