View of Colorado Fire from Space

Image credit: NASA

A new photo released from NASA’s Terra spacecraft shows the huge swath of destruction caused by the enormous fire in Colorado. The fire started on June 8, and has gone on to destroy more than 40,000 hectares. The image was acquired using Terra’s Advanced Spaceborne Thermal Emission and Reflection Radiometer (Aster), one of five Earth imaging instruments on board the spacecraft. This photo was taken on morning of Sunday, June 16.

Thousands of acres of burned vegetation, along with recent hotspots, are visible in a new image of Colorado’s worst forest fire taken by NASA’s Advanced Spaceborne Thermal Emission and Reflection Radiometer (Aster).

Started on June 8, the Hayman forest fire continues to burn in the Pike National Forest, 57 kilometers (35 miles) south-southwest of Denver, Colo. According to the U.S. Forest Service, the fire has consumed more than 100,000 acres.

The image is available at:

http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/images/earth/usa/west.html.

Acquired Sunday morning, June 16, 2002, the Aster image shows active fires in red. The dark blue area is burned vegetation, and the green areas are healthy vegetation. Clouds are white. The blue cloud at the top center is smoke. The image covers an area of 32.2 by 35.2 kilometers (20 by 21.8 miles).

Aster is one of five Earth-observing instruments launched in December 1999 on NASA’s Terra satellite. With its 14 spectral bands from the visible to the thermal infrared wavelength region and its high spatial resolution of 15 to 90 meters (about 50 to 300 feet), Aster will image Earth for the next six years to map and monitor the planet’s changing surface. Japan’s Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry built the instrument. NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif., is responsible for the American portion of the joint U.S./Japan science team that validates and calibrates the instrument and the data products.

Original Source: NASA/JPL News Release