NASA sat snaps LA wildfire NASA's Terra satellite has captured a dramatic image of the Los Angeles "Station Fire" wildfire. It is one of at least seven conflagrations currently affecting California, which by yesterday had reportedly laid waste to over 133,000 acres and consumed 80 buildings. NASA's Terra images of the California fires NASA explains …
A similar image from the wonder Miravi service from ESA (warning 3 MB JPG)
http://mrrs-ks.eo.esa.int/mrrs/images/2009/08/29/MER_FR__0PNPAS20090829_181827_000001962082_00070_39202_1028.N1_4A99EC1A_image_0260.jpg
Miravi has the advantage of providing images in near real time around the world. Pity they haven't got round to wrapping it in any kind of nice service so you can just enter a location and get pictures from the area around it. Probably the reason why it gets so little public attention. When the German telly was covering the Athens' fires they resorted to the cheesy Google Earth to zoom in on the area around Athens but, "look, no clouds".
It's not LA that's burning, the "LA fire" is in the mostly uninhabited San Gabriel Mountains, and moving AWAY from Los Angeles, and unlikely to get within about ten miles of LA proper. For a tech site, I'm quite surprised that there is no mention of the largish telescope and huge array of telecommunications kit up on Mount Wilson that is in actual danger ...
The large housing loss in the state mostly occurred in Auburn, in the foothills of the Sierra Nevada range, North East of Sacramento, where a wild fire ripped thru' a housing development. That's what happens when you don't clear a defendable space around your home in the mostly arid desert that is California ... Or when you build a bunch of McMansions on postage stamp sized lots.
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