Borrego Fire, New Mexico

Borrego Fire, New Mexico

For the past week, the Borrego Fire in northern New Mexico has consumed over 12,000 acres of land in and around the Sante Fe National Forest. This true-color image of the fire was acquired on May 24, 2002, by the Moderate-resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS), flying aboard NASA’s Terra satellite. The fire, which has been fueled by unseasonably dry mixed conifer and aspen forests, is reported to have spread very little in the past twenty-four hours. Eight hundred firefighters, four air tankers, and 12 helicopters have been employed to control the blaze. As of now, the cause of the fire is still under investigation, and no one has been seriously injured or killed.

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