BIG PIC: The Station Fire from Space

Sept. 1, 2009 -- On August 31, this was the view from space of the raging wildfire bearing down on Mount Wilson Observatory in the mountains north of Los Angeles, CA. The "Station Fire" had consumed over 100,000 acres of forest and destroyed 74 structures by this point. Tragically, two firefighters had also lost their lives.

This image was taken by NASA's Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectrometer (MODIS), used to track abnormally high surface temperatures. In this case, the red outline indicates the spread of the wildfire. A vast plume of smoke is also obvious, drifting northeast, causing air quality issues. The previous day, on August 30, the smoke was even worse, hanging in the LA County valleys.

More high-resolution images of the region can be found on the Earth Observatory website. Photo Credit: NASA

For space news, photos, video and more, take a look at Discovery News: Space and Ian O'Neill's blog: Space Disco.