Aerosols from 2003 Southern California Fires
-
Credit
NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center Scientific Visualization Studio
Aerosols from 2003 Southern California Fires (WMS)
A devastating series of fires occurred in Southern California during October 2003. The effects of these fires were detectable from space. The Total Ozone Mapping Spectrometer (TOMS) instrument measures aerosol particles (microscopic airborne dust and smoke). TOMS was able to detect aerosols from these fires moving West over the Pacific Ocean and East over the continental United States.
This animation shows aerosol index over the western US from Oct 23 through November 1, 2003. Each image pixel corresponds to an area 1 degree in longitude by 1.25 degrees in latitude.