A large plume of smoke is streaming northeast from the Hayman Fire (north of center), southwest of Denver, Colorado. The fire, already 77,000 acres, is extremely active and still spreading north-northeast toward Denver. Although shifting winds slowed the fire?s progress, evacuation of thousands of residents is still a possibility. Other large fires shown are the Missionary Ridge Fire, north of Durango, Colorado (southwest of the Hayman Fire), and the Ponil Fire in northern New Mexico (south of the Hayman Fire).

This image was acquired by the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on the Terra satellite on June 10, 2002.

Image courtesy Liam Gumley, Space Science and Engineering Center, University of Wisconsin-Madison

Instrument: 

Terra - MODIS