Fires in the Southwest

Fires in the Southwest

The Southern Nevada Complex Fire has scorched more than 500,000 acres in the area between the White and Virgin Rivers in the U.S. Southwest. The fires in the complex were started by lightning and are burning in juniper-pinyon woodlands and grass. This image of southern Nevada (left), Utah (upper right), and Arizona (lower right), shows the huge area involved in the Southern Nevada Fire as well as numerous smaller fires burning on June 30, 2005. The image was captured by the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on NASA’a Aqua satellite. Active fire locations are outlined in red. Vegetation is bright green, naturally bare or thinly vegetated soil is tan or pink, and burned areas are deep reddish-brown.

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