19. NASA's ECOSTRESS Monitors California's Apple Fire From Space

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IMAGE ADVISORY: 2020-152

As the wildfire rages Southern California, an Earth-observing instrument aboard the International Space Station was able to measure its heat and dark smoke plume.

NASA's Ecosystem Spaceborne Thermal Radiometer Experiment on Space Station (ECOSTRESS) captured a birds-eye view of the vast Apple fire raging in Southern California. 

The wildfire began on Friday evening after two smaller fires merged and rapidly grew in the hot conditions in Riverside County, almost two hours west of Los Angeles, prompting the evacuation of thousands of residents. The region has also been experiencing temperatures of over 100 degrees Fahrenheit (38 degrees Celsius) and the vegetation has been under stress because of the heat, becoming a tinderbox. By Monday, the wildfire had exploded to over 26,000 acres, producing thick smoke that can be seen drifting west from California to Arizona.

This ECOSTRESS observation was recorded at 2:15 p.m. PDT on Saturday, Aug. 1, 2020, when the burn area was approximately 4,000 acres in size. In the first image, the black smoke plume can be seen drifting west and over Joshua Tree National Park in the Mojave Desert. With a resolution of about 77 by 77 yards (70 by 70 meters), the image enables surface-temperature conditions down to the size of a football field to be studied.

Tasked with detecting plant water use and stress, ECOSTRESS measures the temperature of plants as they heat up when they run out of water. But it can also measure and track heat-related phenomena like fires, heat waves, and volcanoes. Due to the space station's unique orbit, the mission can acquire images of the same regions it orbits above at different times of the day, as opposed to crossing over each area at the same time of day like satellites in other orbits do. This is advantageous when monitoring the Amazon rainforest, for example, which is enshrouded in cloud at certain times of the day; ECOSTRESS can collect data at other times of the day once the cloud has dissipated.