September 28, 2021 - Southern California Shrouded in Smoke
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Lightning strikes in tinder-dry forests and grassland ignited two
significant—and smoky—fires in Sequoia National Park and the Tule River
Reservation on September 9-10, 2021. More than two weeks later, the
wind-fueled blazes have spread and grown more intense, threatening
groves of giant sequoias, prompting authorities to issue evacuation
orders, and shrouding Southern California with smoke.
On September 26, the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer
(MODIS) on board NASA’s Terra satellite acquired a true-color image of
smoke pouring from the Windy River and KNP Complex fires. Not only is
the ash-colored smoke so thick that it many areas it obscures the land
from view, but the plume also stretches over part of a broad bank of
marine stratocumulus clouds in the west and across Nevada in the east.
Red “hot spots” mark areas where the thermal bands on the MODIS
instrument detected high temperatures which, in this case, are actively
burning areas. The KNP Complex sits north of the Windy Fire. Hot spots
sit along the active edges of the fires; in the center, the fuel has
already been burnt and no large fire can be supported. The KNP Complex
was first reported on September 10 and was originally two separate
lightning-ignited fires. They were joined into the Complex on September
11. The fire has continued to expand in the Sequoia and Kings Canyon
National Park and spread northeast into the Sequoia National Forest. As
of September 27, the fire has scorched 46,976 acres and is only 8
percent contained. Over 1,800 personnel are combating the KNP Complex.
The Windy Fire, ignited on September 9, has grown to 85,383 acres as of
September 27. That’s a 3,105-acre increase from the estimate on the
evening of September 26, according to InciWeb Incident Information
System. It is burning in the Tule River Indian Reservation; the Sequoia
National Forest, including the Giant Sequoia National Monument; and
Tulare County and state responsibility areas. As of the evening of
September 27, it remains only 2 percent contained.
Image Facts
Satellite: Terra
Date Acquired: 9/26/2021
Resolutions: 1km (165.2 KB), 500m (569.8 KB), 250m (1.6 MB)
Bands Used: 1,4,3
Image Credit: MODIS Land Rapid Response Team, NASA GSFC
https://modis.gsfc.nasa.gov/gallery/individual.php?db_date=2021-09-28
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