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Subscribe to RSSA video recorded on the International Space Station shows the smoke-filled skies of the American West.
A four-minute video from the International Space Station, released today by NASA, captures a beautiful and horrible sight: Ribbons of smoke drifting across Colorado and other Western states, due to a rash of wildfires.
You can also see sunlight glinting off lakes, as well as the snow-covered Rocky Mountains. But the haze covering the plains makes the biggest impression as you watch the landscape pass by, 230 miles (370 kilometers) beneath the station and a docked Russian spacecraft.
More than 30,000 residents in the Colorado Springs area had to evacuate their homes Tuesday night, due to what officials said was the most destructive fire in the state's history. Today, Colorado Springs Mayor Steve Bach passed along a preliminary report that the Waldo Canyon Fire destroyed 346 houses. President Barack Obama is due to visit the city on Friday to meet with firefighters and tour the fire-ravaged zones. (Our slideshow documents the devastation.)
The worst fire season in recent history is taking its toll with large fires burning thousands of acres in Colorado while others consume areas in Montana, Utah, New Mexico and Wyoming.
Other wildfires burned in Colorado as well as Utah and Montana, The Associated Press reported.
The space station can capture high-resolution video and stills of the scene from its Cupola observation deck, but that's not the only vantage point at NASA's disposal. Earth-watching satellites such as Terra and Aqua are also monitoring the wildfires, as are weather satellites such as GOES-15. Here's a picture of the western U.S. taken by GOES-15 at 8:45 a.m. ET today and processed by the NASA GOES Project at Goddard Space Flight Center:
NASA / NOAA GOES Project
The GOES-15 satellite keeps a stationary eye over the western United States. Smoke from the fires raging in several states has created a brownish-colored blanket over the entire region.
"The dawn's early light revealed smoke and haze throughout the Midwest, arising from forest fires throughout the Rockies," NASA said in its image advisory. "While the most publicized fires occur along the populous eastern range in Colorado, the great smoke plumes in this image came from Wyoming."
To get a fix on the Western wildfires, check out these resources:
- MODIS fire imagery: Clickable state-by-state satellite views from Terra and Aqua.
- NASA: Fire and Smoke: A selection of wildfire imagery, organized by subject.
- GeoMAC Wildland Fire Support: Online, zoomable satellite maps of fire locations.
- Incident Information System: Text-based database for national wildfire status.
- Weather coverage on msnbc.com: Your source for news about the Western wildfires.
Alan Boyle is msnbc.com's science editor. Connect with the Cosmic Log community by "liking" the log's Facebook page, following @b0yle on Twitter and adding the Cosmic Log page to your Google+ presence. You can also check out "The Case for Pluto," my book about the controversial dwarf planet and the search for new worlds.
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What do you say .... ??
Everyday life can be tough enough sometimes without this kind of ordeal thrown on you ....
These pines and junipers burn like they are made gas ....
They look great to be living near and have in your neighborhoods , but look ....
Stay strong , keep punching ....
You'll get through it ....
Thanks Alan ....
This is what happens when you put out every forest fire you can instead of allowing nature to do it's thing and burn off the extra growth. All that foliage just keeps building up, then dries out and goes off like a powder keg when hit by a spark.
These fires are absolutely devastating, and these images are compelling.
Thanks, Alan.
Floods, earthquakes, wildfires, 2012?
Or things that have been happening everday since history started being recorded.
I wonder what the 1898 Colorado fire that burned 3 million acres would have looked like from space. The current fires are nothing compared to that.
The real story would be if they were seen from a vacuum.
ehhh this story seems pretty real to me.
Good point! I also wonder you do not see them burning toward the fire to put it out or are the firefighters just gouging for overtime pay? Not to cut them down but it does make one wonder, they are UNION and just like anyone else capable of bleeding the system.
Rather insensitive and crude to accuse men and women who are putting their lives on the line battling these forest fires, many of whom live nowhere near the fires. Political BS does not belong here at all.
I did not ACCUSE anyone, I simply said that it makes one wonder. We all know that the best way to put a fire that is out of control is to have a controlled fire burn into it so the fires go out by them selves and one does not see that happening from the video. YES, I did add the fact that many are UNION and we know how UNIONS can be. I fought many fires in which lives were lost because of some of stupid mistakes SOME of these people I had to work with. I know that there are a lot of good Firefighters out there, but not all are as careful.
No, actually we don't all know that. There are times you can use a 'backfire,' and times you can't. There have been instances elsewhere when controlled burns got out of control. And I'm assuming experienced forest fire fighters have more knowledge than us of when conditions suggest that it's a bad move. (also, this fire has already jumped several respectable firebreaks, given the winds, heat and fuel conditions...the may simply have judged it to be a futile action)
And no one 'milks' fire conditions like these for a little OT. It's hot, it's miserable, the longer it goes the more likely a firefighter could die, either directly from the fire, or from heat-related illness.. It just wouldn't be worth it to take one minute longer than necessary.
It's taking time because it's a damn hard fire. Period.
Climate Change isn't helping either. Interestingly the Air Force considers Climate Change as one of the biggest Naional Security Risks we face. I am in the midwest and IA, IL and KS are in bad droughts. The climatologists said the drought was coming but the warmth of the latest winters and the beetles out west....this is tragic. So many people deny science (until they hop into their cars) that we are not addressing fundamental changes like we should. Here in IL and IA you could stick a post in the ground all winter-the ground never froze. And yes, forest management is a good thing but you have to fund it.I love Colorado and am sorry for all of those affected...
Hate to be a downer but at work we decided that the ISS footage looks like it shows fires in UT and WY. I believe the clouds in the lower left may be NW Colorado but not the Front Range. The mountains in the center of the shot are the Tetons. This screen shot from Google Earth shows the approximate orientation but is zoomed out to a level that shows the Front Range. plus.google.com/114303247988061344845/posts/bBguM3VLkEf
Troubleisthat sometimes the backfires to head off ahuge fire will itself become part of a problem and another fire. Winds are not the most easiest thing to rely on sometimes. As far as makeing them keep going to milk the OT, probably the stupidest thing I've heard yet. Been to some of those in my youth here in my Blue Ridge mountains where they call in other States to help put it out. It is not that easy, you just don't piss on it with alittle water in an area that has little water to begin with, There are a mass of "volunteers" out there from all over fighting those fires who only get meals and some sleep when they are able for their trouble. Not something a lot of people can be bother with I suppose so they sit on the side lines and whine about folk that are doing the job and not doing it right to their thinking.
cAN YOU tell me WHY we have self sufficient, warm toasty homes in a station in the freezing space - AND THE PEOPLE ON EARTH ARE STARVING???
And many enjoy their computers in their cozy comfy homes - AND THE PEOPLE ON EARTH ARE STARVING???
what knowledge one has of self-sufficient regeneration is key to life of effortless living. Why would an 'elite' only use it to GET OFF THE PLANET, when obviously, he chose to bE born HERE for a reason - trying to escape reality , again? Why would the "elite' not SHARE this technology with the whole world. To ease pain and suffering, thereby increasing joy and positivity on Earth - but no, he wants to horde his fantastical knowledge and try to pop the bubble which holds us on this piece of rock flung from the sun. Mr - I like to only go where my pecker is led? happily sqeezing the turnips till they bled their one drop of life into their throats.
2012? Really. What about the "last days"? Taking man's predictions as gold? What about the Mayans there no
longer here? There are other writings that prove to be more accurate.
drill baby drill !!!oh.... burn baby burn !!!