This website works best with a newer web browser such as Chrome, Firefox, Safari or Microsoft Edge. Internet Explorer is not supported by this website.

CIMSS Satellite Blog

MENU

Caldor Fire approaches South Lake Tahoe

By Scott Lindstrom •

Suomi NPP and NOAA-20 (as indicated) VIIRS Day Night Band visible (0.7 µm) imagery, 11-31 August 2021 (Click to enlarge). Sacramento CA is at the western edge of the imagery, and Reno NV is along the northern boundary.

Day Night Band imagery collected from the VIIRS-Today website, above, shows night-time snapshots of the Caldor Fire (discussed previously here, here and here on this blog) as it formed and moved towards Lake Tahoe in August 2021. On 31 August, the last day of the animation, the fire was close enough to the city of South Lake Tahoe that evacuation orders for that town have been issued.

The longer animation, below, shows the evolution of the Caldor Fire and the Dixie Fire complex as well (and is an update to this blog post).

Suomi NPP and NOAA-20 (as indicated) Day Night Band Imagery, 9 July – 31 August 2021 (Click to enlarge)

VIIRS imagery can also be used to outline burn scars from the fire. The ‘False Color’ RGB image below, from 30 August 2021 (from this url at VIIRS Today), depicts just how large the burn scar (the brownish region in the imagery) from the Dixie Fire is.

NOAA-20 False Color imagery from 30 August 2021 (Click to enlarge)

Categories: Air quality, Fire detection, NOAA-20, Suomi NPP, VIIRS