NASA's ASTER Sees Arizona's Bighorn Fire Burn Scar From Space
From the vantage point of the Terra satellite, the
instrument can detect the scarred land that the wildfire, burning north of
Tucson, is leaving in its wake.
On the night of
June 5, a lightning strike started the Bighorn Fire in the Santa Catalina Mountains
north of Tucson, Arizona. Extremely dry vegetation and windy conditions caused
the fire to spread quickly. By June 30, the multi-agency incident information
system, InciWeb, reported that it had ballooned to more
than 114,000 acres and that it was about 45% contained.
NASA's Advanced Spaceborne Thermal Emission and Reflection Radiometer (ASTER) instrument aboard the Terra satellite imaged some
of the burned area on June 29. In this image, vegetation is shown in red and
burned areas appear dark gray. It covers an area 20 by 30 miles (33 by 48
kilometers).
Efforts to contain the fire continue with 21 hand crews, 10 helicopters
and dozens of fire engines deployed to the area. Smoke impacts to surrounding
communities are being carefully monitored.
With its 14
spectral bands from the visible to the thermal infrared wavelength region and
its high spatial resolution of about 50 to 300 feet (15 to 91 meters), ASTER
images Earth to map and monitor the changing surface of our planet. It is one
of five Earth-observing instruments launched Dec. 18, 1999, on Terra. The
instrument was built by Japan's Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry. A
joint U.S./Japan science team is responsible for validation and calibration of
the instrument and data products.
The broad
spectral coverage and high spectral resolution of ASTER provides scientists in
numerous disciplines with critical information for surface mapping and monitoring
of dynamic conditions and temporal change. Example applications are monitoring
glacial advances and retreats; monitoring potentially active volcanoes;
identifying crop stress; determining cloud morphology and physical properties;
wetlands evaluation; thermal pollution monitoring; coral reef degradation;
surface temperature mapping of soils and geology; and measuring surface heat
balance.
The U.S. science team is located at
NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California. The Terra mission is
part of NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington.
|
