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A Satellite Image Tour of Planet Earth on Fire

Meanwhile, the 2014 wildfire season is just getting started.
Image: ISS image of wildfires near Juarez, Mexico/NASA

Believe it or not, the 2014 wildfire season has not yet met its full potential given the widespread extreme droughts across the western United States. According to US Forest Service figures, the number of western fires to date is at about 70 percent of the 10 year average, while the total burned area sits at just less than half of the 10 year average.

The tide is turning, however, with new fires bursting out nearly everywhere that they should be expected. The map below is the current situation; just a couple of weeks ago, nearly all of those dots (fires) were localized in Oregon and Washington. Currently, the Forest Service is reporting 28 uncontained large fires, with four new large fires this weekend and 122 total new fires (that aren't yet considered "large).

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It's very often the case that fires happen in relatively hidden areas, despite their size. Where I am on the Oregon/Washington border, sandwiched right in between the country's (often) most-active wildfire alleyways, fire evidence is typically less outright smoke and ash than a layer of haze and the Forest Service helicopter filling its massive water bucket in the Columbia River, which happens to be my neighbor.

NASA has an entire mission tasked with spying on fires, however. Among the space agency's myriad activities, it could be considered one of its most critical even. Not only do NASA satellites do the work of the American forests' erstwhile network of mountaintop fire lookouts, the agency provides emergency imaging services to firefighting and emergency management crews, thanks to its fleet of drones.

It's the satellites though that might be said to provide the real perspective on just how massive "large" wildfires can be.

Image: NASA/Jeff Schmaltz, LANCE/EOSDIS MODIS Rapid Response Team at NASA GSFC

The Carton Complex fire in north-central Washington is said to be the largest in state history. By July 21 (the date of the above image), it had grown to be five times the size of Seattle. Today, it remains only 59 percent contained.

Image: NASA

Looking south across Washington and Oregon, a crew member aboard the International Space Station took this photo on July 19.

Image: NASA

The Chinook Ridge fire complex sits on the border between British Columbia and Alberta, where it's giving off enough smoke to mimic the formation of cumulus clouds. In concert with the fires burning in Oregon and Washington, it's assumed that the resulting pollution/particulate matter traveling across the continent is enough to have health effects in the US and Canada.

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Image: NOAA
Image: Jeff Schmaltz, MODIS Rapid Response Team.

This was taken by NASA's Aqua satellite on July 24, 2014.

Image: Jeff Schmaltz, MODIS Rapid Response Team.

The same smoke photographed over the Great Lakes on July 24 (above) is seen in the lower right of this image taken the day before.

Image: NASA/NOAA/C.Seftor

The Funny River fire had consumed nearly 50,000 acres in the Kenai Wildlife Refuge in Alaska by May 22, releasing tall columns of smoke (aerosols), as revealed in UV imaging from NASA-NOAA's Suomi NPP satellite. By June 5, the date that Forest Service public information officers left the scene, the fire had burned almost 200,000 acres and was 60 percent contained.

Image: Jeff Schmaltz, MODIS Rapid Response Team

Finally, eastern Russia, claiming the "most apocalyptic" prize—as eastern Russia is wont to do.

Keep in mind, of course, that fire season is just getting started really. By August, when western landscapes are thoroughly, brutally dry and lightning-rich monsoon thunderstorms hit many fire-prone regions, we can expect images to put these to shame.