Thousands of acres of burned vegetation, along with recent
hotspots, are visible in a new image of Colorado’s worst forest fire taken
by NASA’s Advanced Spaceborne Thermal Emission and Reflection
Radiometer (Aster).
Started on June 8, the Hayman forest fire continues to burn in the
Pike National Forest, 57 kilometers (35 miles) south-southwest of Denver,
Colo. According to the U.S. Forest Service, the fire has consumed more
than 100,000 acres.
The image is available at:
http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/images/earth/usa/west.html .
Acquired Sunday morning, June 16, 2002, the Aster image shows
active fires in red. The dark blue area is burned vegetation, and the green
areas are healthy vegetation. Clouds are white. The blue cloud at the top
center is smoke. The image covers an area of 32.2 by 35.2 kilometers (20
by 21.8 miles).
Aster is one of five Earth-observing instruments launched in
December 1999 on NASA’s Terra satellite. With its 14 spectral bands
from the visible to the thermal infrared wavelength region and its high
spatial resolution of 15 to 90 meters (about 50 to 300 feet), Aster will
image Earth for the next six years to map and monitor the planet’s
changing surface. Japan’s Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry built
the instrument. NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif., is
responsible for the American portion of the joint U.S./Japan science team
that validates and calibrates the instrument and the data products.
More information about Aster is available at:
http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/missions/current/aster.html .
JPL is a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena.
