Wildfires were burning on the north and south rims of the Grand Canyon in Arizona on July 13, 2005. To the north, the Dragon Complex Fire was burning in woodland and forests that include ponderosa pine trees, aspen, and a mixture of conifers. As of July 14, 2005, the fire was about 6,500 acres. Meanwhile, to the south of the canyon, the Mudersbach Fire in the Kaibab National Forest was about 6,000 acres. Both of these fires were triggered by lightning, and they are being managed according natural resource objectives established for the area.
This image of the fires (red outlines) was captured by the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on NASA’s Terra satellite on July 13, 2005. The Mudersbach Fire on the southern rim of the canyon is visible only as a plume of smoke billowing from beneath a patch of clouds. The high-resolution image provided above is 500 meters per pixel. The MODIS Rapid Response System provides this image at additional resolutions.
NASA image courtesy the MODIS Rapid Response Team, Goddard Space Flight Center
