Date of Image: 8/24/2020
Date of Next Image: Unknown
Summary: The Multi-angle Imaging SpectroRadiometer (MISR)
team at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory and the California Institute of
Technology in Pasadena, California, provided this map of wildfire smoke plume
heights for several wildfires in California, derived from data acquired by the
MISR instrument, on board the NASA Terra satellite, on August 24, 2020. MISR
carries nine fixed cameras, each of which views a scene from different angles
over a period of about seven minutes. After accounting for true motion of the
clouds due to wind, the angular parallax of the clouds between different views
is used to derive the height of the smoke plumes.
Suggested Use: These data contain plume height information
for the CZU Lightning Complex, LNU Lightning Complex, and SCU Lightning Complex
Fires as observed by MISR at approximately 12:10 pm local time on August 24,
2020. Plume height gives an indication of fire intensity and indicates whether
the smoke is impacting air quality at ground-level. Observations of plume height
are also important as an input to air quality models that predict where the
smoke will go, and who it might affect downwind. The MISR plume heights in this
map were produced using the MISR Interactive eXplorer (MINX) software. The plume point heights are exaggerated 5x to better show structure of the plumes. True height values are available in the attributes of each point.
Satellite/Sensor: Terra/Multi-angle Imaging
SpectroRadiometer
Resolution: 1.1 kilometers horizontal resolution
Credits: These data were captured during Terra orbit 110026.
The smoke plume height calculation was performed using the MISR INteractive
eXplorer (MINX) software tool, which is publicly available at https://github.com/nasa/MINX. MISR was
built and is managed by NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, California,
for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington, D.C. The Terra spacecraft
is managed by NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Maryland. The MISR
data were obtained from the NASA Langley Research Center Atmospheric Science
Data Center, Hampton, Virginia. JPL is a division of the California Institute
of Technology in Pasadena.