The Wallow fire, affecting the eastern part of Arizona and western New Mexico in the US, has affected thousands of people across the country and burnt over 600 square miles; very close to the 2002 Rodeo-Chediski Fire which affected around 732 square miles of forest area. Not to mention, the hazardous air pollution from the fire that have produced plumes of NO2.
Even with the thousands of firefighters working to control the situation, the fire was only about 5 percent controlled by Saturday.
Detailed images released by NASA have enabled authorities to get a clear picture of the situation and take steps towards controlling it. In fact, NASA's Ozone Monitoring Instrument has been a prime detector of NO2, helping to provide a data product that can be used to visualize the sources of these gases to the atmosphere, the Christian Post reports.
Check out the photo-gallery released by NASA on the Arizona Wallow Wildfire:
By the end of the day on June 9, 2011, Arizona’s massive Wallow Fire had reached 386,690 acres (609 square miles) and had burned around 29 and threatened 5,242 homes. Most of the homes destroyed were in Greer. Approximately 3,012 people are working to contain the fire, which is now just five percent contained. Calmer winds on June 10 should help firefighters make more progress on containing the fire, said InciWeb.The Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on the Terra satellite acquired this image of the Wallow Fire on June 9 at 10:55 a.m. local time. Active fire areas are outlined in red. Smoke rises from the most intensely burning areas, but overall, the fire is producing less smoke than in previous days. Jeff Schmaltz, MODIS Rapid ResSmoke from Arizona fires, including the Wallow Fire, continued traveling toward the northeast on June 8, 2011. As the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on the Terra satellite acquired this natural-color image at 12:10 Central Daylight Time, thick smoke stretched from New Mexico and Texas northeastward to Illinois.Red outlines in this image indicate actively burning fires, but the blazes primarily responsible for the smoke lie to the west. On June 8, 2011, the U.S. Air Quality “Smog Blog” reported that wildfires in eastern Arizona affected air quality throughout much of the eastern United States. The thickest smoke occurred over the Plains States, but thinner smoke plumes reached Quebec, Canada, and stretched to the Atlantic Ocean off New England. Jeff Schmaltz, MODIS Rapid ResThis series of images shows high concentrations of carbon monoxide moving across the United States from the Wallow Fire in eastern Arizona between June 3 and June 6, 2011. The images were made from data from the Atmospheric Infrared Sounder (AIRS) on the Aqua satellite. High concentrations of carbon monoxide are shown in red. Pale gray areas are places where the sensor did not collect data.On June 3, carbon monoxide flows northeast directly from eastern Arizona. By the next day, concentrations are higher north of the fire. A natural color satellite image showed dense smoke over Colorado that day. Over the following two days, pulses of carbon monoxide drifted east. Carbon monoxide in Canada may be from wildfires in Alberta.While much of the carbon monoxide shown here is from the Wallow Fire, some may also be from urban pollution. In the United States, vehicles and other gasoline-powered equipment generate the bulk of carbon monoxide pollution. NASA/handout.The blaze from Wallow North, one of Arizona’s most potent fires, grows at an alarmingly fast rate. Likewise an end to the Horseshoe Two fires seems nowhere in sight. U.S. Forest Service officials rank the Wallow North fire, which has left 600 square miles of pine forest blackened, as Arizona’s second-largest forest fire on record, according to Reuters.Both fires are continuing to produce thick clouds of smoke, as seen in this image. The Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) instrument on NASA's Aqua satellite identified the fires (in red) on June 8 at 20:25 UTC (4:25 p.m. EDT/2:25 p.m. MDT).Fire officials said they are bringing in a Boeing 747 supertankers to assist with the fires and spread fire retardant chemicals, reported the KPHO news service on June 8. Jeff Schmaltz, MODIS Rapid ResThis image from NASA’s Multi-angle Imaging SpectroRadiometer (MISR) instrument on the Terra spacecraft show the Wallow and Horseshoe 2 Fires currently burning in Arizona.
The Wallow Fire is in the center of the MISR image. Nearly 10 distinct bluish-colored smoke plumes can be seen blowing toward the upper right (northeast). The green pine forests of the White Mountains stand out against the lighter desert background. In this image, the windblown smoke is seen extending into New Mexico; smoke from this fire has been carried over the Great Plains as far as Iowa. The city of Tucson, Az., is in the lower left portion of the image, and appears in shades of gray. The bright region to the east of Tucson is the Wilcox Playa, and smoke from the the Horseshoe 2 Fire is visible to the east.NASA JPL.A CALIPSO vertical profile from space shows the smoke plume on June 3, 2011 from the wildfires currently raging in Arizona. It is overlaid on an image captured by the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) instrument on the Terra satellite nine hours later. The data shows that the Wallow Fire smoke plume reached heights of 5 kilometers ( 3 miles) high. CALIPSO and Terra are part of the "A-Train" constellation of five Earth-observing satellites.NASA /Kurt Severance, Jason Ta
