Fires in Southern California

Multiple massive wildifres burned in southern California during the last week of October 2003. This series of images shows the fires and the damage they caused as seen from a variety of satellites.

This Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) image from the Terra satellite on November 2, 2003 shows one of the regions in southern California that was severely damaged by raging wildfires in late October 2003. Northwest of Los Angeles, fires roared through the Santa Monica Hills around Simi Valley and Thousand Oaks, leaving behind a burn-scarred landscape, which appears deep red in this image. Unaffected vegetation appears green, while naturally bare soil (low vegetation) appears pinkish. The white rectangle shows the area covered in a high-resolution image acquired by the Advanced Spaceborne Thermal Emission and Reflection Radiometer (ASTER) during the same overpass of the Terra satellite.

Metadata

  • Sensor

    Terra/MODIS
  • Start Date

    2003-11-02
  • Event Start Date

    2003-10-23
  • NH Image ID

    11839
  • NH Event ID

    10194
  • NH Posting Date

    2003-11-13