NASA: National Aeronautics and Space AdministrationEarth Observatory

Two Perspectives on Forest Fire

Posted August 23, 2000
Two Perspectives on Forest Fire
download large image (350 KB, JPEG)  

Multi-angle Imaging Spectroradiometer (MISR) images of smoke plumes from wildfires in western Montana acquired on August 14, 2000. A portion of Flathead Lake is visible at the top, and the Bitterroot Range traverses the images. The left view is from MISR's vertical-viewing (nadir) camera. The right view is from the camera that looks forward at a steep angle (60 degrees). The smoke location and extent are far more visible when seen at this highly oblique angle. However, vegetation is much darker in the forward view. A brown burn scar is located nearly in the exact center of the nadir image, while in the high-angle view it is shrouded in smoke. Also visible in the center and upper right of the images, and more obvious in the clearer nadir view, are checkerboard patterns on the surface associated with land ownership boundaries and logging.

Compare these images with the high resolution infrared imagery captured nearby by Landsat 7 half an hour earlier.

Images by NASA/GSFC/JPL, MISR Science Team.

Next Image
30 Years of Arctic Warming August 24, 2000
30 Years of Arctic Warming
Previous Image
One Typhoon and Two Hurricanes August 22, 2000
One Typhoon and Two Hurricanes
Image of the Day Index