Envirocast® On-Line Feature of the Week -- July 18, 2007

Wildfire Near Reno, Nevada

The image in this Envirocast® Bulletin was taken by the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) onboard NASA's Terra satellite on July 17, 2007.  The image shows the Hawken Fire just outside of Reno, Nevada.

Hawken Wildfire

The Hawken Fire is burning just 4 miles southwest of Reno, Nevada, which can be seen on the image as a gray area to the right of the fire.  The current burning area is shown in orange, and the smoke plume from the fire extends 46 miles to the north.

Environmental Impacts:

  • The Hawken fire is burning four miles southwest of Reno, Nevada and has burned 1,719 acres so far.

  • The fire is 0% contained and there is no projected date of containment.  Currently, there are 258 firefighters battling the blaze.

  • Numerous residences and power lines remain threatened although no homes have been lost yet.

Supplementary Material:

NASA's TERRA Satellite:

  • The Terra spacecraft (formally known as EOS-AM) was successfully launched on Saturday, December 19, 1999 at the Vandenberg Air Force Base (VAFB) in Lompoc, California. It is flying at an altitude of 705 km (438 miles) observing the Earth. The life expectancy of the Terra mission is 6 years. It will be followed in later years by other EOS spacecraft that take advantage of new developments in remote sensing technologies. [Terra 3D Animation], [Animation showing Terra Orbit]

  • Terra's orbit around the Earth is timed so that it passes from north to south across the equator in the morning, and thus it passes over us at the same local time every day, approximately 10:30-10:45 a.m.

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