Park Fire, California
The Park Fire in California initiated two weeks ago and portions of the fire perimeter are still ablaze at the time of this blog entry. As of 7 August 2024, the Park Fire has burned 420,000 plus acres and is only 34% percent contained (per InciWeb). The JPSS SNPP VIIRS Day Fire RGB and the VIIRS Fire Temperature RGB imagery observed the Park Fire on 6 August 2024 at 20:40Z.
The Day Fire RGB shows the extensive burn scar (reddish brown colors) produced by the Park Fire, along with active fire hotspots (seen in red colors) and the corresponding smoke plume (blue-grey colors). The VIIRS Fire Temperature RGB can also be employed for fire detection and provides a qualitative estimate of fire intensity. In the Fire Temperature RGB imagery, red pixels indicate ‘warm’ fires, orange pixels are designated as ‘very warm’ fires, yellow pixels are ‘hot’ fires, and white pixels are ‘very intense’ fires. On the northeast periphery of the Park Fire, a mix of yellow and white pixels can be seen, indicating that hot and very intense fires are present. The VIIRS Day Fire RGB is at a 375-m spatial resolution, while the VIIRS Fire Temperature RGB is at 750-m.
A daytime VIIRS Day Fire RGB animation of the rapid fire spread, smoke, active fires and burn scar can be seen below. The daytime animation spans two weeks, from 24 July 2024 to 5 August 2024.