ScienceDaily (Nov. 18, 2008) — Images from NASA satellites give a wider perspective of the full extent and devastation of the wildfires raging in Southern California.

A pair of images from NASA's Aqua satellite show the Los Angeles metropolitan area on Nov. 16, 2008. The top image posted on NASA's Web site shows the Southern California area as a vast plume of smoke billows out over the Pacific Ocean.

The bottom image provides a closer view of the area around Los Angeles and two large fires burning there: the Freeway Complex Fire and the Sayre Fire. The Freeway Complex Fire has burned nearly 24,000 acres in Orange, Los Angeles and Riverside counties.

Fanned by high winds, blazes stretching from Santa Barbara to Anaheim, Calif., have scorched an estimated 35,000 acres, according to news reports.

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Gusty winds drove wildfires into southern California cities in mid-November 2008. This image from the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on NASA's Aqua satellite shows the Los Angeles metropolitan area on November 16, 2008. (Credit: NASA image courtesy the MODIS Rapid Response Team.)

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