Cool Science Image

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Since 1945, Smokey the Bear has admonished Americans to prevent forest fires. An unattended campfire is the suspected cause of the Thirty Mile Fire in Washington state's Okanogan County. Discovered during the evening of July 9, 2001, the fire consumed a 5-acre area over the course of the next day. But on the afternoon of July 11, high winds, high temperatures and extremely dry conditions caused the small fire to burn 2,500 acres in just a few hours.

Near-record high temperatures created instability in the air, and because of that instability, the superheated air of the fire began to surge upward. Cooler air closer to the ground rushed in to replace the risen, superheated air. This process of replacement created surface winds, which stoked the fire and caused it to spread further. Four firefig hters lost their lives battling the blaze, which still smolders in Washington.

Scientists monitor wildfires - or "biomass burning" as they say - closely because fire and smoke figure into climate change scenarios. Since the best way to monitor burning biomass is from space, the folks at the Cooperative Institute for Meteorological Satellite Studies (CIMSS) use the Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite (GOES) to detect and monitor burning biomasses and their smoke.

This week's CSI is an example of the Wildfire Automated Biomass Burning Algorithm (WFABBA) . Scientists at the CIMSS created this image by using a modified alpha-blending technique to combine data from NOAA's GOES-10 satellite with a landcover map derived from 1-km resolution Advanced Very High Resolution Radiometer (AVHRR) data. As you can see, both the Thirty Mile Fire and its smoke plume are labeled in the final product. To see how the GOES-10 satellite captured formation of the smoke plume, click here.

Courtesy Cooperative Institute for Meteorological Satellite Studies, Space Science and Engineering Center, University of Wisconsin-Madison.


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			Fire in Washington Click here to see a better view of the CSI. Since 1945, Smokey the Bear has admonished Americans to prevent forest fires. An unattended campfire is the suspected cause of the Thirty Mile Fire in Washington state's Okanogan County. Discovered during the evening of July 9, 2001, the fire consumed a 5-acre area over the course of the next day. But on the afternoon of July 11, high winds, high temperatures and extremely dry conditions caused the small fire to burn 2,500 acres in just a few hours. Near-record high temperatures created instability in the air, and because of that instability, the superheated air of the fire began to surge upward. Cooler air closer to the ground rushed in to replace the risen, superheated air. This process of replacement created surface winds, which stoked the fire and caused it to spread further. Four firefig hters lost their lives battling the blaze, which still smolders in Washington. Scientists monitor wildfires - or "biomass burning" as they say - closely because fire and smoke figure into climate change scenarios. Since the best way to monitor burning biomass is from space, the folks at the Cooperative Institute for Meteorological Satellite Studies (CIMSS) use the Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite (GOES) to detect and monitor burning biomasses and their smoke. This week's CSI is an example of the Wildfire Automated Biomass Burning Algorithm (WFABBA) . Scientists at the CIMSS created this image by using a modified alpha-blending technique to combine data from NOAA's GOES-10 satellite with a landcover map derived from 1-km resolution Advanced Very High Resolution Radiometer (AVHRR) data. As you can see, both the Thirty Mile Fire and its smoke plume are labeled in the final product. To see how the GOES-10 satellite captured formation of the smoke plume, click here. Courtesy Cooperative Institute for Meteorological Satellite Studies, Space Science and Engineering Center, University of Wisconsin-Madison.