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Wildfires - Blog Posts
Holy fuck I live here and didn't know it was this bad
Ok yall. A serious topic right now, far from the other topics I mention on this blog.
Arizona is literally on fire.
The state has at least 4 wildfires going on and thousands of firefighters are fighting this, but we have less than half contained on the biggest fire. (42%)
Our biggest fire is the Bush fire, that has already covered 180k acres.
Now I know what most of you might be thinking, 'oh, this is Arizona, it happens a lot.' Well let me tell you that Arizona doesn't get large wildfires often. Surprise, it's not common here. We usually get smaller wildfires which we put out quickly, most often in a day.
Our firefighters are trying their best to get these fires contained but due to the immense heat and the strong winds, its getting difficult. Lots of people who live close to the fires had been evacuated already.
I can only see the smoke covering what used to be our beautiful blue skies. Its been like this for days.
These fires started on June 13th but the majority of news about this is from Arizona. I have found only few other news casts talking about this. Our state is suffering (most of it in ruins) and it feels like we're not being heard about this.
This post is not to put down any of the protesting or other important news. I just want people to be aware of what is happening here right now.
We're on fire.
in los angeles, the historically Black community of altadena has been decimated by the ongoing eaton fire.
afropunk has created a spreadsheet of gofundmes of displaced Black individuals and families affected by the current los angeles fires. the list is constantly being updated.
please donate what you can and share widely.
2019 Temperature By the Numbers
The Year
2nd Hottest
2019 was the second-hottest year since modern record keeping began. NASA and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration work together to track temperatures around the world and study how they change from year to year. For decades, the overall global temperature has been increasing.
Over the long term, world temperatures are warming, but each individual year is affected by things like El Niño ocean patterns and specific weather events.
The global temperature is an average, so not every place on Earth had its second-warmest year. For instance, the continental U.S. had a cold October, but Alaska set records for high temperatures. The U.S. was still warmer than average over the year.
Globally, Earth’s temperature in 2019 was more than 2°F warmer than the late 19th Century.
The Record
140 years
Since 1880, we can put together a consistent record of temperatures around the planet and see that it was much colder in the late-19th century. Before 1880, uncertainties in tracking global temperatures are larger. Temperatures have increased even faster since the 1970s, the result of increasing greenhouse gases in the atmosphere.
10 years
The last decade was the hottest decade on record.
20,000 Individual Observations
Scientists from NASA use data from more than 20,000 weather stations and Antarctic research stations, together with ship- and buoy-based observations of sea surface temperatures to track global temperatures.
The Consequences
90%
As Earth warms, polar ice is melting at an accelerated rate. The Arctic is warming even faster than the rest of the planet. This northern summer, 90% of the surface of the Greenland Ice Sheet melted.
8 inches
Melting ice raises sea levels around the world. While ice melts into the ocean, heat also causes the water to expand. Since 1880, sea levels globally have risen approximately 8 inches, although regional rates of sea level rise can be even higher.
100+ fires
As temperatures increase, fire seasons burn hotter and longer. During June and July 2019, more than 100 long-lived and intense wildfires burned north of the Arctic circle. This year also saw intense, record-setting fires in Australia.
46% increase in CO2 levels
This decades-long warming trend is the result of increasing greenhouse gases in the atmosphere, released by human activities.
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Fires in the Amazon Rainforest
This natural-color image shows smoke from fires in the Amazon rainforest spreading across several states within Brazil, including Amazonas, Mato Grosso, and Rondônia. The image was collected by our VIIRS (Visible Infrared Imaging Radiometer Suite) instrument aboard the Suomi NPP satellite (a joint-partnership between NASA and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration) on August 20, 2019. It’s not unusual to see fires in Brazil at this time of year, but activity in the country’s largest state, Amazonas, has been above average. Many people use fire to maintain farmland and pastures or to clear land for other purposes.
Credits: NASA Worldview, Earth Observing System Data and Information System (EOSDIS).
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Smoke Gets In Your Eyes…and Our Instruments
Fires are some of the most dynamic and dramatic natural phenomena. They can change rapidly, burning natural landscapes and human environments alike. Fires are a natural part of many of Earth’s ecosystems, necessary to replenish soil and for healthy plant growth. But, as the planet warms, fires are becoming more intense, burning longer and hotter.
Right now, a fleet of vehicles and a team of scientists are in the field, studying how smoke from those fires affects air quality, weather and climate. The mission? It’s called FIREX-AQ. They’re working from the ground up to the sky to measure smoke, find out what’s in it, and investigate how it affects our lives.
Starting on the ground, the Langley Aerosol Research Group Experiment (LARGE) operates out of a large van. It’s one of two such vans working with the campaign, along with some other, smaller vans. It looks a little like a food truck, but instead of a kitchen, the inside is packed full of science instruments.
The team drives the van out into the wilderness to take measurements of smoke and tiny particles in the air at the ground level. This is important for a few reasons: First of all, it’s the stuff we’re breathing! It also gives us a look at smoke overnight, when the plumes tend to sink down out of the atmosphere and settle near the ground until temperatures heat back up with the Sun. The LARGE group camps out with their van full of instruments, taking continuous measurements of smoke…and not getting much sleep.
Just a little higher up, NOAA’s Twin Otter aircraft can flit down close to where the fires are actually burning, taking measurements of the smoke and getting a closer look at the fires themselves. The Twin Otters are known as “NOAA’s workhorses” because they’re easily maneuverable and can fly nice and slow to gather measurements, topping out at about 17,000 feet.
Then, sometimes flying at commercial plane height (30,000 feet) and swooping all the way down to 500 feet above the ground, NASA’s DC-8 is packed wing to wing with science instruments. The team onboard the DC-8 is looking at more than 500 different chemicals in the smoke.
The DC-8 does some fancy flying, crisscrossing over the fires in a maneuver called “the lawnmower” and sometimes spiraling down over one vertical column of air to capture smoke and particles at all different heights. Inside, the plane is full of instrument racks and tubing, capturing external air and measuring its chemical makeup. Fun fact: The front bathroom on the DC-8 is closed during science flights to make sure the instruments don’t accidentally measure anything ejected from the plane.
Finally, we make it all the way up to space. We’ve got a few different mechanisms for studying fires already mounted on satellites. Some of the satellites can see where active fires are burning, which helps scientists and first responders keep an eye on large swaths of land.
Some satellites can see smoke plumes, and help researchers track them as they move across land, blown by wind.
Other satellites help us track weather and forecast how the fires might behave. That’s important for keeping people safe, and it helps the FIREX-AQ team know where to fly and drive when they’ll get the most information. These forecasts use computer models, based on satellite observations and data about how fires and smoke behave. FIREX-AQ’s data will be fed back into these models to make them even more accurate.
Learn more about how NASA is studying fires from the field, here.
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Earth: Our Oasis in Space
Earth: It’s our oasis in space, the one place we know that harbors life. That makes it a weird place -- so far, we haven’t found life anywhere else in the solar system...or beyond. We study our home planet and its delicate balance of water, atmosphere and comfortable temperatures from space, the air, the ocean and the ground.
To celebrate our home, we want to see what you love about our planet. Share a picture, or several, of Earth with #PictureEarth on social media. In return, we’ll share some of our best views of our home, like this one taken from a million miles away by the Earth Polychromatic Imaging Camera (yes, it’s EPIC).
From a DC-8 research plane flying just 1500 feet above Antarctic sea ice, we saw a massive iceberg newly calved off Pine Island Glacier. This is one in a series of large icebergs Pine Island has lost in the last few years – the glacier is one of the fastest melting in Antarctica.
It’s not just planes. We also saw the giant iceberg, known as B-46, from space. Landsat 8 tracked B-46’s progress after it broke off from Pine Island Glacier and began the journey northward, where it began to break apart and melt into the ocean.
Speaking of change, we’ve been launching Earth-observing satellites since 1958. In that time, we’ve seen some major changes. Cutting through soft, sandy soil on its journey to the Bay of Bengal, the Padma River in Bangladesh dances across the landscape in this time-lapse of 30 years’ worth of Landsat images.
Our space-based view of Earth helps us track other natural activities, too. With both a daytime and nighttime view, the Aqua satellite and the Suomi NPP satellite helped us see where wildfires were burning in California, while also tracking burn scars and smoke plumes..
Astronauts have an out-of-this-world view of Earth, literally. A camera mounted on the International Space Station captured this image of Hurricane Florence after it intensified to Category 4.
It’s not just missions studying Earth that capture views of our home planet. Parker Solar Probe turned back and looked at our home planet while en route to the Sun. Earth is the bright, round object.
Want to learn more about our home planet? Check out our third episode of NASA Science Live where we talked about Earth and what makes it so weird.
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10 Ground-breaking Earth Satellite Images from 2018
In 2018, our satellites captured beautiful imagery from throughout the solar system and beyond. However, some of our favorite visualizations are of this very planet. While this list is by no means exhaustive, it does capture some Earth satellite images from this year that are both visually striking as well as scientifically informative. This list also represents a broad variety of Earth’s features, as well as satellite instrumentation. Take a journey with our eyes in the sky!
10. Hurricane Florence
Before making landfall, Hurricane Florence churned in the Atlantic for a full two weeks — making it among the longest-lived cyclones of the 2018 season. When it finally did hit land on Sep. 14, the storm devastated the southeastern U.S. coast with intense winds, torrential rains and severe flooding.
This natural-color image was acquired by MODIS on the Terra Satellite on Sep. 12, 2018.
Images like this, as well as other satellite information, were used to anticipate the impact of the storm. Our Disasters Program created flood proxy maps that were shared with the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) and the National Guard to estimate how many and which communities would be most affected by the storm, in order to help prepare recovery efforts ahead of time.
9. Australia’s Lake Eyre Basin
The Lake Eyre Basin covers one-sixth of Australia and is one of the world’s largest internally draining river systems. However, the rivers supported by this system are ephemeral, meaning that they only run for short periods of time following unpredictable rain — the rest of the time, the Basin is a dry, arid desert.
However, when the heavy rain comes, the basin erupts in an explosion of green. In this false-color image captured by the Operational Land Imager (OLI) on Landsat 8 on Apr. 25, 2018, you can see how the vegetation completely envelops the spaces where the water has receded. (Flood water is indicated by light blue, and vegetation is indicated by light green.)
Satellites are an excellent tool for tracking greening events that are followed by flooding. These events offer opportunities for predictive tools as well as recreation.
8. Alaska’s Chukchi Sea
A Monet painting comes to life as the Chukchi Sea swirls with microscopic marine algae.
This image was captured off the Alaskan coast by OLI on Landsat 8 on Jun. 18, 2018. After the Arctic sea ice breaks up each spring, the nutrient-rich Bering Sea water mixes with the nutrient-poor Alaskan coastal water. Each type of water brings with it a different type of phytoplankton and the surface waters have just enough light for the algae to populate and flourish. The result is these mesmerizing patterns of turquoise and green.
This image represents one piece of much larger, incredibly complex ecosystem. While one would not normally associate the breaking up of sea ice with phytoplankton blooms, it is an intricate process of the phytoplankton life cycle. The size of the blooms have varied greatly from year to year, and experts are unsure why. Images like these can help scientists track the development of these blooms and link it to other environmental changes.
7. Hawaii’s Kilauea
Sometimes fresh lava is best viewed in infrared.
This false-color image of Kilauea, captured by OLI on Landsat 8 on May 23, 2018, shows the infrared signal emitted by lava flowing toward the sea. The purple areas surrounding the glowing lava are clouds lit from below, indicating that this image was taken through a break in the clouds.
The Puʻu ʻŌʻō Kupaianaha eruption has been continuously spewing red-hot lava since 1983, making it the longest eruption at Kilauea in recorded history. However, new fissures opened up this year that forced many to evacuate the area. Hawaii’s largest lake evaporated in hours and hundreds of homes were destroyed in Vacationland and Kapoho.
Imagery, seismometers and ground-based instruments were used to track the underground movement of magma. Infrared imagery can be incredibly helpful in disasters like this when you to view data that cannot be observed with the naked eye.
6. California’s Woolsey Burn Scar
Nothing quite encapsulates the destruction of a wildfire like a photo from outer space.
This image of the Woolsey Fire aftermath in Southern California was captured on Nov. 18, 2018 by the Advanced Spaceborned Thermal Emission and Reflection Radiometer (ASTER) on the Terra satellite. This false-color infrared image has been enhanced to clearly show the burned vegetation (indicated by brown) and the vegetation that survived unscathed (indicated by green).
The Woolsey Fire clearly left its mark, with almost 152 square miles (394 square km) and 88% of the Santa Monica Mountains National Recreation Area badly burned. Images like this one can assist fire managers in the area plan for recovery.
5. Bangladesh’s Padma River
As the years go by, the Padma River grows and shrinks, twists and turns. It never has a fixed shape, and as a result, thousands of people must regularly adapt to the constant changes in the river’s 75-mile (130-km) shoreline.
This image captured on Jan. 20, 2018 by OLI on Landsat 8 depicts one of the major rivers of Bangladesh. For thirty years, scientists have been tracking the erosion of the river with satellite imagery. Combinations of shortwave infrared, near infrared, and visible light are used to detect differences year-to-year in width, depth, and shape of the river. Sometimes the river splits off, but then rejoins again later. These patterns are created by the river carrying and depositing sediment, shaping the curves of the path of water.
Monitoring the Padma River is going to become especially important as a new bridge development project advances in the Char Janajat area. Although the bridge will most certainly help shorten travel times for citizens, nobody is quite sure how the river erosion might affect the construction and vice versa.
4. Alaska’s Yakutat Glacier
It’s hard to believe that Harlequin Lake was once all dry land — but it only started to form once Yakutat Glacier started melting. The lake appeared at the beginning of the twentieth century, and has been growing rapidly ever since.
In this hauntingly beautiful image, captured on Sep. 21 2018 by OLI on Landsat 8, the effect of climate change is apparent — especially when compared to earlier images of the region.
Unless the climate warming starts to reverse very soon — which scientists consider very unlikely — Yakutat could be gone as soon as 2070.
3. South Africa’s Theewaterskloof
Cape Town is a seaside city planted on the tip of South Africa. It’s a city known for its beaches and biodiversity — it also almost became known as the first major city to officially run out of water.
This image of Cape Town’s largest reservoir — Theewaterskloof — was acquired on Jul. 9th, 2018 by OLI on Landsat 8. By the time this photo was taken, the city’s main reservoirs stood at 55%. This was a huge increase from where it stood just six months earlier: just 13%.
The severe water shortage in the region started in 2015, only to become more threatening after three successive and unusually dry years. The entire city was preparing for Day Zero — the day the tap water would be shut off.
Despite forecasts that Day Zero would arrive in April, a combination of heavier rains and local conservation efforts restored the majority of the reservoir.
2. Aerosol Earth
Aerosols are all around us. From the smoke from a fire, to the dust in the wind to the salt in sea spray — these solid particles and liquid droplets are always swirling in our atmosphere, oftentimes unseen.
The Goddard Earth Observing System Forward Processing (GEOS FP) model uses mathematical equations to model what is happening in our atmosphere. The inputs for its equations — temperature, moisture, wind, etc. — come from our satellites and ground sensors.
This visualization was compiled on Aug. 24, 2018 — obviously a busy day for aerosols in our atmosphere. Swirls of sea salt (indicated by blue) reveal typhoons Soulik and Cimaron heading straight towards South Korea and Japan. A haze of black carbon (indicated by red) suffuse from agricultural burning in Africa and large wildfires in North America. And clouds of dust (indicated by purple) float off the Sahara desert.
1. Camp Fire
With nearly a hundred fatalities, hundreds of thousands of acres burned and billions of dollars of damage, the world watched in horror as Camp Fire grew to become the most destructive California wildfire in recorded history.
This image was captured on Nov. 8, 2018 by OLI on Landsat 8 on the same day Camp Fire ignited. It consolidates both visible light and shortwave-infrared light in order to highlight the active fire. Strong winds and dry conditions literally fanned the flames and spread this wildfire like a rash.
This image has not only become the iconic portrait for Camp Fire, it is also sobering representation of how quickly a fire can grow out of control in a short amount of time. Even from space, you can almost smell the massive plumes of smoke and feel the heat of the fires.
Whether you realize it or not, our Earth satellite missions are collecting data everyday in order to monitor environmental changes and prepare for natural disasters. If your interest is piqued by this list, head over to the Earth Observatory. The Earth Observatory updates daily with fresh, new content — brought to you by none other than our eyes in the sky.
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The California Wildfires from Above
As massive wildfires continue to rage in southern California, our satellites, people in space and aircraft are keeping an eye on the blazes from above.
This data and imagery not only gives us a better view of the activity, but also helps first responders plan their course of action.
A prolonged spell of dry weather primed the area for major fires. The largest of the blazes – the fast-moving Thomas fire in Ventura County – charred more than 65,000 acres.
Powerful Santa Ana winds fanned the flames and forecasters with the LA office of the National Weather Service warned that the region is in the midst of its strongest and longest Santa Ana wind event of the year.
These winds are hot, dry and ferocious. They can whip a small brush fire into a raging inferno in just hours.
Our Aqua satellite captured the above natural-color image on Dec. 5. Actively burning areas are outlined in red. Each hot spot is an area where the thermal detectors on the satellite recognized temperatures higher than the background.
On the same day, the European Space Agency’s Sentinel-2 satellite captured the data for the above false-color image of the burn scar. This image uses observations of visible, shortwave infrared and near infrared light.
From the vantage point of space, our satellites and astronauts are able to see a more comprehensive view of the activity happening on the ground.
The crew living and working 250 miles above Earth on the International Space Station passed over the fires on Dec. 6. The above view was taken by astronaut Randy Bresnik as the station passed over southern California.
During an engineering flight test of our Cloud-Aerosol Multi-Angle Lidar (CAMAL) instrument, a view from our ER-2 high-altitude research aircraft shows smoke plumes. From this vantage point at roughly 65,000 feet, the Thomas Fire was seen as it burned on Dec. 5.
Our satellites can even gather data and imagery of these wildfires at night. The above image on the right shows a nighttime view of the fires on Dec. 5.
For comparison, the image on the left shows what this region looked like the day before. Both images were taken by the Suomi NPP satellite, which saw the fires by using a special “day-night band” to detect light in a range of wavelengths from green to near-infrared and uses light intensification to detect dim signals.
Having the capability to see natural disasters, like these wildfires in southern California, provides first responders with valuable information that helps guide their action in the field.
For more wildfire updates, visit: nasa.gov/fires.
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I write in unbearable heat With a fan or three aimed at my seat And the air outside’s long been Beset by a strong wind Of fires and smoke and defeat - Mod B
Hey big man, we'd like to inquire Could you even get fuckin higher? From all California We'd like to inform ya That we didn't start the damn fire - Mod B
Colorado : wildfires
You know shit's bad when your whole state looks like this. We were already having a dry spell, so whenever the winds got crazy, wildfires took over everywhere. Firefighters were even sent in from the neighboring states, and unfortunately, we can't get any aerial support because the winds are still too high. The wind ALSO brought a shit ton of dust. Almost everywhere, visibility was near zero, and breathing this shit in was bound to hurt your lungs. The winds were 70-100+ mph all across the state: trees snapped, trucks flipped, all kinds of damage and debris everywhere. Pretty much anything that wasn't nailed down was flying. People have had to evacuate a lot of places.
I'm lucky enough that myself and my family are alright, the damage at our place wasn't severe, but damn, something had it out for us today-
Sometimes forgiveness is swallowing a match,
swallowing ten.
Your veins ignite like gasoline-soaked wood
(are your doubts the gasoline or your convictions?)
(does it matter?)
.
Sometimes it’s a bit like suffocating,
Water rushing in through your nose and you’re
Drowning
(are your memories the water or your dreams?)
(does it matter?)
.
—y.c.
A 2,500 year old ancient olive tree on the island of Evia was destroyed today in the ongoing wildfires consuming the region. The ancient tree was located in the olive grove of Rovia, and was such an enduring symbol of the landscape that the ancient geographer and philosopher Strabo featured it in his writings.
The tree was large, with a trunk so wide ten people could fit along its diameter. The tree was fertile with olives all the way until it fell victim to the wildfire.
The tragic loss of the Evian tree was posted to Twitter by Apostolis Panagiotou, and the evocative image quickly gained over a thousand likes, with many Greeks leaving responses mourning the impact of the fires.