Fires in Arizona and New Mexico

Fires in Arizona and New Mexico

Two widely spaced red outlines marking active fire locations on the southern flank of Mt. Lemmon (northeast of Tucson, AZ) given an idea of the size of the Aspen Fire and the difficulty firefighters face in attempting to control it. Smoke seems to pool around the base of the mountain, giving the scene a grayish appearance. As of July 8, 2003, the blaze was 82,000 acres and about 70 percent contained. At upper left is Phoenix, and at far right is New Mexico. This image was acquired July 7, 2003, by the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on the Aqua satellite.

Image courtesy Jacques Descloitres, MODIS Rapid Response Team at NASA GSFC