April 21, 2015 - Fires in the Great Plains

Fires in the Great Plains

Smoke and hotspots from fires in eastern Kansas were spotted from space by NASA's Aqua satellite. The Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) instrument that flies aboard NASA's Aqua satellite captured an image of smoke and fires burning on April 10 at 19:30 UTC (3:30 p.m. EDT).

On April 13, the National Weather Service (NWS) Storm Prediction Center expects "critical fire weather conditions to persist on Monday (April 13) for portions of the western Great Lakes and Northern Plains. This critical fire weather threat is due to a combination of above normal temperatures, gusty west-northwest winds, and low relative humidity. Any fires that start in these areas will quickly spread and become hard to control."

Image Facts
Satellite: Aqua
Date Acquired: 4/10/2015
Resolutions: 1km (104.5 KB), 500m (435.5 KB), 250m (1.1 MB)
Bands Used: 1,4,3
Image Credit: Jeff Schmaltz, MODIS Land Rapid Response Team, NASA GSFC