LA Fires Seen From Space

August 30, 2009

Raging wildfires in Los Angeles County, as seen by NASA's Terra satellite at about 11 a.m. PDT on Saturday. The red outline is a hotspot where the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) instrument on Terra detected unusually warm surface temperatures. The image is a bit blurry because the fires were not in the direct line of sight as Terra passed overhead. (Credit: NASA)

Comments

[Darren Osborne]

I hope the observatory survives. It brings back chilling memories of Mount Stromlo Observatory, Australia in 2003 - see http://www.mso.anu.edu.au/gallery2/main.php?g2_itemId=3674

[Curtis]

I absolutely love the work that NASA does and I look forward to the many photos of the earth and space that you share with the rest of the world. I believe it would appease most Americans if you would stick to OUR system of measurement of feet, inches, miles etc. when referring to places and photos of America. Yes, I'm old fashioned in this respect.

[Bruce Faulkner]

Photos are great... Curtis, get a clue. Metric measurements have been used scientifically for quite a while and NASA is a scientific organization.

[P.]

Curtis, stop being lame.

[c.]

@Curtis, are you kidding me? I can not wait for the day when the US switches to 100% metric. So much easier to use.

[Phrank]

Curtis, you're entirely welcome to remain old-fashioned in your preference of inches over centimeters...I'll never judge you for that.

However, you should be consistent in your old-fashionedness and have a similar preference to, say, steam locomotives over SRBs and silver nitrate daguerrotypes over the MODIS. Else I'm afraid you'll look like someone trying to "have it both ways," and you don't want that, do you?

[Mironakis]

The metric system just makes so much more sense. But I still think it's very funny how everyone waits for one person to make some type of fatuous comment so they can all attack:)

[Curtis's Mom]

CURTIS GAYLORD O'REILLY! Stop playing with the computer and put your wet sheets in the laundry hamper like I asked you!

[Amery]

inches? feet? nah....lets go back to rods and chains

[Yokel]

Curtis, I would also tell NASA NOT to refer to that city as "Los Angeles" but instead "The Angels". We speak American in AMERICA!

[mackenzie allen]

Im sorry, but california cannot win against nature. That many people were never intended to live there. I suggest californians think about moving before they are evacuated.

[Broge kilrain]

And you thought autos were the pollution source of California

[mickeyglitter]

@Curtis's Mom LOL - I laughed so hard at your comment I forgot about the wildfires for a minute. =)

[Dr Reese Halter]

The vegetation is the driest its been in 25 years. For the first time since I've been covering fires in southern Cali this monster of 105,000 acres (Monday night August 31,2009) is being driven by the drought and not the Santa Anna wind. Is this a glimpse of the fires of the future as climate change deepens in California?
Dr Reese Halter's latest book is The Incomparable Honey Bee, Rocky Mountain Books.
http://DrReese.wordpress.com/

[Steve O]

I was driving back to LA from the Eastern Sierras Sunday on the 14 and it looked liked the San Gabriel's had erupted. Old fashioned English units have caused trouble for NASA -"Miscalculations due to the use of English units instead of metric units apparently sent the craft (Mars Climate Orbiter) slowly off course -- 60 miles in all -- leading it on a suicide course through the Martian atmosphere."

The conversion factor is roughly the "Golden Ration" ~ 1.6 so it shouldn't be too hard to do a rough aproximation from km to miles.