Peppin Fire on El Capitan

Peppin Fire on El Capitan

The Peppin Fire in the El Capitan Mountains of New Mexico was briefly checked late in the last week of May 2004 by moderate temperatures, cloudiness, and a little rain. But in the first days of June, more dangerous, windy conditions returned, and the fire once again flared up. This pair of images from the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometers (MODIS) on the Terra and Aqua satellites shows the thermal signature detected by the sensors in the morning (top) and afternoon (bottom) on June 1, 2004. Both images are available in additional resolutions. Over the course of the day several new active areas sprang up on both sides of the central burned area. These locations are outlined in red. As of June 1, the fire had affected 33,500 acres and was 45 percent contained.

Image courtesy the MODIS Rapid Response Team, NASA-Goddard Space Flight Center