ScienceDaily (Nov. 17, 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.

Recommend this story on Facebook, Twitter,
and Google +1:

Other bookmarking and sharing tools:

Story Source:

The above story is reprinted from materials provided by NASA.

Note: Materials may be edited for content and length. For further information, please contact the source cited above.

Disclaimer: Views expressed in this article do not necessarily reflect those of ScienceDaily or its staff.

enlarge

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.)

Related Stories

NASA Satellite Images Show Rapid Growth Of California Wildfires (Oct. 23, 2007) — Images from NASA satellites illustrate how quickly wildfires have spread throughout Southern California. Powerful Santa Ana winds have fueled more than 10 large wildfires stretching from Santa ...  > read more

Hospital Visits For Respiratory Illnesses Spiked During Southern California Wildfires (Nov. 18, 2008) — Raging wildfires that engulfed Southern California earlier this decade not only destroyed neighborhoods laying in their path, they also caused significant health problems for many who lived outside ...  > read more

Satellites See Eruption of Chile's Puyehue-Cordón Volcano from Space (June 7, 2011) — NASA's Terra Satellite, the GOES-13 and GOES-11 satellites all captured images of the ash plume from southern Chile's Puyehue-Cordón Volcano. The volcano is located in Puyehue National Park in ...  > read more

California Wildfires As Seen From Remotely Piloted Aircraft (July 16, 2008) — A remotely piloted aircraft carrying a NASA sensor flew over much of California earlier this week, gathering information that will be used to help fight more than 300 wildfires burning within the ...  > read more

Search ScienceDaily