October 21, 2007
Update: MODIS Aqua image of Southern California fires and dust
A striking image of the smoke and fires in California and Mexico from the MODIS sensors on NASA's Aqua satellite. As the afternoon progressed, Santa Ana winds increased producing huge dust and smoke plumes down the southern California and Baja Mexico coast. The red boxes are fires counts, basically red lines drawn around "thermal anomolies" (fires). The gray plumes from those fire counts are smoke. The more yellowish plumes are dust, blown up by the high winds. The streaky white lines over southeastern California and western Arizona are dust as well. Completing the picture is the Von Karman vortex south of the Isle de Guadalupe off the Baja coast.
