In the twinkling of an eye

San Diego Wildfires 2007: Google Earth

This image is a screen capture of Google Earth and MODIS data for the October 2007 San Diego fires. Click on the graphic for a higher resolution view. Updated screen captures will be posted here.

To view updated versions of this data on your own computer, do the following:

• Download Google Earth
• Periodically (every 12 hours the data is updated) click on the KMZ download link

You can than pan around the map, zoom in on specific locations and query different points. If you click on one of the red or yellow dots you will get information on the data that looks something like the following:

For other web based fire mapping resources see:

• http://map.sdsu.edu/
• NOAA animation
• Radar loop
• KPBS Google Map
• Google Earth Blog
• KPBS Twitter updates (every 15 minutes)
• sdfires wiki
• The imagery used in this web site comes from the USDA Forest Service Remote Sensing Applications Center – MODIS Active Fire Mapping Program and can be found here (updated every 12 hours). For example, view the “Bands 7, 2, 1 (False Color)” image.

The NOAA link (2nd bullet above) will get you to an animation which looks like the following:

Thanks to Ming Tsou, André Skupin, Ed Aguado, Janet Franklin, and John Graham for pointing me to these resources.

UPDATES

I will also be posting new information as it comes available so check back periodically.