Click on the image for visualization
Four-Day Time Series
A series of fires across Greece in August of 2007 burned 469,000 acres and
claimed the lives of 65 people. The fires, in which an estimated 4,000
people lost their homes, mostly occurred in the southern part of the
country.
In the visualization (see above), the carbon monoxide signature from the fires in
Greece is revealed in data retrieved by the Atmospheric Infrared Sounder,
AIRS. Forest fires create large amounts of carbon monoxide. AIRS provides
daily global maps of carbon monoxide from space, allowing scientists to
follow the global transport of this gas day-to-day. The visualization
covers data retrieved over the period from August 24-28, 2007, and shows
the amount of CO that has risen into the broad layer within the free
troposphere.
More carbon monoxide generally means more pollution, either natural from
wildfires or from industrial and domestic sources.
Beginning August 24, a significant plume emanates from the extensive fires
burning in Greece. This plume moves southeast across the Mediterranean Sea
and over North Africa from August 24 to 28. It crosses to Africa and arcs
westward over the Sahara Desert and continues to curl around over the
Eastern Mediterranean toward Sardinia and Corsica.
The Atmospheric Infrared Sounder Experiment (AIRS), with its visible,
infrared, and microwave detectors, provides a three-dimensional look at
Earth's weather. Working in tandem, the three instruments can make
simultaneous observations all the way down to the Earth's surface, even in
the presence of heavy clouds. With more than 2,000 channels sensing
different regions of the atmosphere, the system creates a global, 3-D map
of atmospheric temperature and humidity and provides information on
clouds, greenhouse gases, and many other atmospheric phenomena. The AIRS
Infrared Sounder Experiment flies onboard NASA's Aqua spacecraft and is
managed by NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif., under
contract to NASA. JPL is a division of the California Institute of
Technology in Pasadena.
