January 25, 2022 - Smoke over California

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A wind-driven wildfire leapt to life in Big Sur, Monterey County,
California on January 21, 2022, quickly prompting evacuations and
causing the closure of a portion of the Pacific Coast Highway. The
blaze was named the Colorado Fire after the Palo Colorado Canyon, where
it was first spotted on Friday evening. As many as 500 residents were
under evacuation orders in the mountainous coastal region as the fire
exploded, driven by wind gusts of up to 50 miles per hour. As of
January 24, the fire has scorched 700 acres and is 40 percent
contained, according to CAL FIRE. The cause of this wildfire is under
investigation.

The Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on board
NASA’s Terra satellite acquired a true-color image of southern
California on January 21. At that time, thick haze and smoke covered
most of the state, including the area around the Colorado Fire.
Although the Colorado Fire was the only active wildfire listed by CAL
FIRE on that day, several other hot spots were seen across the state
from other MODIS images. Several prescribed burns have been planned in
various locations around the state and neighboring states for January,
and these likely contribute to the heavy haze. Prescribed burns are
fires that are deliberately set to manage land, usually wildlands or
forest. They can be used to promote healthy undergrowth, remove
deadfall that would fuel a wildfire, and reduce the danger of
out-of-control wildfires in a given location.

Image Facts
Satellite: Terra
Date Acquired: 1/21/2022
Resolutions: 1km (681.7 KB), 500m (1.6 MB), 250m (1 MB)
Bands Used: 1,4,3
Image Credit: MODIS Land Rapid Response Team, NASA GSFC



https://modis.gsfc.nasa.gov/gallery/individual.php?db_date=2022-01-25

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