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Click on thumbnail (above) to view full-sized image. Photo courtesy NASA |
We've all heard the old expression about fighting fire with fire, but how about preventing fires with satellites and computers? Using multispectral imagery, scientists can map vegetation that could fuel a fire and show how close it is to housing. Satellites can help direct firefighters and provide information on where best to place their equipment. After a fire, satellite imagery can indicate the amount of destruction for government aid and insurance purposes.
The photo above left shows smoke from the massive wildfires that raged across southern California in October 2003. Whipped by the hot, dry Santa Ana winds, one fire grew 10,000 acres in just six hours.
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Click on thumbnail (above) to view full-sized image. Photo courtesy NASA. |
Burn scars left behind by the wildfires in southern California are evident in the before-and-after photos at right. In the lower image, the burned areas appear brown.
The image below, taken November 2, 2003, shows the smokey remnants of October's devastating fires. The ash and smoke remained trapped in the atmosphere above the Central Valley, a bowl of land ringed by the Sierra Nevada Mountains to the east (left) and the Coast Range Mountains to the west (right).
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Click on thumbnail (above) to view full-sized image. Photo courtesy NASA. |
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