NASA Observations Aid Efforts To Track

California’s Wildfire Smoke from Space

Track Forest Fire From Space

Wildfires have been burning across the state of California for weeks – some of them becoming larger complexes as different fires merge. One of those was the August Complex Fire, which reportedly began as 37 distinct fires caused by lightning strikes in northern California on Aug. 17.That fire is still burning over a month later.

Individual wildfires and large conflagrations of merged fires were burning throughout the state and the accumulated smoke they produce make it difficult to see the actual flaming hotspots from space. But the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) aboard NASA’s Terra satellite can see the longer wavelengths of nonvisible light or infrared radiation produced by the heat coming from actively burning wildfires. In other words, MODIS can sometimes see through smoke even when our eyes can’t by comparing the higher infrared radiation from hotspots to the lower radiation coming from the surrounding area.

The MISR instrument also collected information about the amount, size, and brightness of the particles within the smoke plume based on how the particles scatter light at different angles and wavelengths. These data give researchers information about the characteristics of the wildfire smoke in order to predict how it will move and affect air quality.

For example, the southern part of the smoke plume emitted by the August Complex Fire on Aug. 31 was made of mostly small, dark particles usually released when a fire is burning intensely. But as the plume moved downwind, the particles became larger and brighter, possibly because water or other gases emitted by the fires condensed on the smoke particles. The August Complex Fire and others this fire season have been sending far- reaching plumes of wildfire smoke into the atmosphere that worsen air quality in California and beyond.

But in some regions of the West Coast, the sky looks relatively normal – even if there are smoke particles in the air – because there are too few smoke particles for our eyes to detect.

“The satellite instruments have the advantage of providing broad coverage and consistent measurement accuracy over time, as well as making their observations without any risk to the people taking the data,” said Ralph Kahn, a senior research scientist with the Earth Sciences Division at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, who studies aerosols. Kahn and other atmospheric scientists at NASA collect data about the fires from Earth-observing satellites used to improve models that predict how wildfire smoke will affect air quality downwind of the fires.

Predicting where that smoke will travel and how bad the air will be downwind is a challenge, but Earth-observing satellites can help. Included among them are NASA’s Terra and CALIPSO satellites, and the joint NASA-National Oceanic and Atmospheric Association (NOAA) Suomi NPP satellite. Together, the instruments on these satellites provide glimpses at the smoke over time, which can help improve air quality predictions. The smoke plumes from California’s wildfires have engulfed many cities and towns throughout the state, turning the sky an apocalyptic shade of burnt orange. In other areas, the sky is a hazy grey, and flecks of ash float through the air.

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