Eyes in the Sky
Two weeks ago a large wildfire broke out north of Los Angeles within the Angeles National Forest. It grew quickly becoming the largest wildfire in Los Angeles County’s history. A suspected case of arson, it has burned over 160,000 acres as of today and is only 62 percent contained. 
The immediate impact of the Station Fire is illustrated dramatically by this image produced by NASA’s Advanced Spaceborne Thermal Emission and Reflection Radiometer (ASTER) instrument on the Terra satellite.
Even having lived in San Diego during the 2007 wildfires, images like that one are just incredible. In addition to this image NASA’s Aqua satellite monitored carbon monoxide concentration within the atmosphere over the first seven days of the fire. Click through for the full animation.
Thanks to NASA’s satellites some potentially useful scientific data can be gleaned from this disaster. Too bad they don’t have a satellite to help us catch those responsible.