Jeff Schmaltz, MODIS Rapid Response Team, NASA/GSFC
Several large fires were burning in the southwestern United States on June 29, 2005, when the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on NASA’s Terra satellite captured this image. The largest of these is the Cave Creek fire in central Arizona, northeast of Phoenix. Ignited by lightning, by June 29, the fire had burned about 140,000 acres. A dark brown scar shows where the fire had already burned. The scar is most obvious in the false color image, where it takes on a deep red-brown color in contrast to the brilliant green vegetation and pale tan desert. In both the false color and photo-like true color images, the fire sends a plume of blue-gray smoke north. The other fires seen in this image are clustered around the Utah-Nevada-Arizona border.
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