Envirocast® On-Line Feature of the Week -- August 27, 2007

Wildfires in Greece

The images in this Envirocast® On-Line were captured by the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) onboard NASA's Aqua satellite on August 26, 2007. They show wildfires in Greece and smoke plumes over the Mediterranean Sea.

Wildfires in Greece

 

Zoom-in view of fires near ancient Olympia

 

This image from the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on NASA’s Aqua satellite shows the fires on Sunday afternoon, August 26. The areas where MODIS detected actively burning fires are outlined in red. Thick smoke spreads southwest over the Mediterranean Sea. Bare or sparsely vegetated land is tan, urban areas are gray, and the natural vegetation on the mountains appears dull greenish-brown.

Environmental Impacts:

  • At least 61 people had been killed by the fires as of August 27, hundreds of homes had been burned, and thousands had to evacuate.

  • The government suspects that the fires were caused by arson, and it has declared a national emergency to deal with the situation.

  • The front of one fire Sunday reached ancient Olympia in southern Greece, burning trees and shrubs just a few yards from the museum at the site. Although the pristine forest around ancient Olympia was burned, none of the 2,800-year-old ruins were damaged.

  • The worst of the fires have been concentrated on the Peloponnesus peninsula in the south and on the island of Evia north of Athens. Strong winds blew smoke and ash over the capital, blackening the evening sky and turning the rising moon red.

Supplementary Material:

NASA's AQUA Satellite:

  • Aqua, Latin for water, is a NASA Earth Science satellite mission collecting about the Earth's water cycle, including evaporation from the oceans, water vapor in the atmosphere, clouds, precipitation, soil moisture, sea ice, land ice, and snow cover on the land and ice. The Aqua spacecraft (formally known as EOS-PM) was successfully launched on May 4, 2002 at the Vandenberg Air Force Base (VAFB) in Lompoc, California. It is flying at an altitude of 705 km (438 miles) observing the Earth, and the life expectancy is 6 years. [Aqua's Orbit], [Animation of MODIS Observing the Earth]

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