The Scorched Earth – Ten Years of Global Wild Fire Observations
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Pastor Dale Morgan
Nov 1, 2011, 3:08:51 AM11/1/11
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Times and Climate Change
The Scorched Earth � Ten Years of Global Wild Fire Observations
By Mark Dunphy - Mon Oct 31, 4:01 pm
Wildfires across the USA in 2011 have burned over 3.5 million acres in Texas and over 1 million acres in New Mexico. However, these scars on the surface represent only a fraction of the total land area scorched by fire during the last decade.
NASA has released a series of new satellite data visualizations that show tens of millions of fires detected worldwide from space since 2002. The visualizations show fire observations made by the MODerate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer, or MODIS, instruments onboard NASA�s Terra and Aqua satellites.
�What you see here is a very good representation of the satellite data scientists use to understand the global distribution of fires and to determine where and how fire distribution is responding to climate change and population growth,� said Chris Justice of the University of Maryland, College Park, a scientist who leads NASA�s effort to use MODIS data to study the world�s fires.
One of the new visualizations takes viewers on a narrated global tour of fires detected between July 2002 and July 2011. The fire data is combined with satellite views of vegetation and snow cover to show how fires relate to seasonal changes. The Terra and Aqua satellites were launched in 1999 and 2002, respectively.
The tour begins by showing extensive grassland fires spreading across interior Australia and the eucalyptus forests in the northwestern and eastern part of the continent. The tour then shifts to Asia where large numbers of agricultural fires are visible first in China in June 2004, then across a huge swath of Europe and western Russia in August. It then moves across India and Southeast Asia, through the early part of 2005. The tour continues across Africa, South America, and concludes in North America.
The global fire data show that Africa has more abundant burning than any other continent. MODIS observations have shown that some 70 percent of the world�s fires occur in Africa. During a fairly average burning season from July through September 2006, the visualizations show a huge outbreak of savanna fires in Central Africa driven mainly by agricultural activities, but also driven by lightning strikes.
Fires are comparatively rare in North America, making up just 2 percent of the world�s burned area each year. The fires that receive the most attention in the United States � the uncontrolled forest fires in the West � are less visible than the wave of agricultural fires prominent in the Southeast and along the Mississippi River Valley. Some of the large wildfires that ravaged Texas this year are visible in the animation.
NASA will extend the its capability to monitor and study global fires from space with the launch on 28 October of the National Polar-orbiting Operational Environmental Satellite System Preparatory Project, known as NPP. The satellite is the first mission designed to collect data to increase our understanding of long-term climate change and improve weather forecasts.
The Scorched Earth � Ten Years of Global Wild Fire Observations
By Mark Dunphy - Mon Oct 31, 4:01 pm
Wildfires across the USA in 2011 have burned over 3.5 million acres in Texas and over 1 million acres in New Mexico. However, these scars on the surface represent only a fraction of the total land area scorched by fire during the last decade.
NASA has released a series of new satellite data visualizations that show tens of millions of fires detected worldwide from space since 2002. The visualizations show fire observations made by the MODerate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer, or MODIS, instruments onboard NASA�s Terra and Aqua satellites.
�What you see here is a very good representation of the satellite data scientists use to understand the global distribution of fires and to determine where and how fire distribution is responding to climate change and population growth,� said Chris Justice of the University of Maryland, College Park, a scientist who leads NASA�s effort to use MODIS data to study the world�s fires.
One of the new visualizations takes viewers on a narrated global tour of fires detected between July 2002 and July 2011. The fire data is combined with satellite views of vegetation and snow cover to show how fires relate to seasonal changes. The Terra and Aqua satellites were launched in 1999 and 2002, respectively.
The tour begins by showing extensive grassland fires spreading across interior Australia and the eucalyptus forests in the northwestern and eastern part of the continent. The tour then shifts to Asia where large numbers of agricultural fires are visible first in China in June 2004, then across a huge swath of Europe and western Russia in August. It then moves across India and Southeast Asia, through the early part of 2005. The tour continues across Africa, South America, and concludes in North America.
The global fire data show that Africa has more abundant burning than any other continent. MODIS observations have shown that some 70 percent of the world�s fires occur in Africa. During a fairly average burning season from July through September 2006, the visualizations show a huge outbreak of savanna fires in Central Africa driven mainly by agricultural activities, but also driven by lightning strikes.
Fires are comparatively rare in North America, making up just 2 percent of the world�s burned area each year. The fires that receive the most attention in the United States � the uncontrolled forest fires in the West � are less visible than the wave of agricultural fires prominent in the Southeast and along the Mississippi River Valley. Some of the large wildfires that ravaged Texas this year are visible in the animation.
NASA will extend the its capability to monitor and study global fires from space with the launch on 28 October of the National Polar-orbiting Operational Environmental Satellite System Preparatory Project, known as NPP. The satellite is the first mission designed to collect data to increase our understanding of long-term climate change and improve weather forecasts.
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