Fires from Space

NASA runs this great site called EarthData - Worldview that allows you to view satellite photos of the globe. In addition, you can overlay different data sets also collected by satellite. You can check out air quality and emissions, moisture content, rain patterns...and fire.

Usually I just enjoy entertaining myself with what is essentially Google Earth for science freaks. However, the fires in California are particularly nasty right now, and I wanted to check out their progress with a direct overview. Thankfully, there was some nifty data from NASA to see. The image below is from NASA. The red dots are NASA's data overlay of the Butte Fire and the Yosemite Fire. I've labeled major locations in the area. As you can see, it is fairly smokey right now in Sacramento. 

Satellite data for Earth observation is incredibly important. Weather predictions and natural disasters can be readily mapped an analyzed to assist protection teams on the ground. Happy viewing!

---