| 1996 Aug 21 20:29 UT |
This image was aquired by NOAA 14 at 20:29 UT over the western U.S.
This was a daytime pass.
Hell's Canyon area
Map of the pass
Channel 2 view of the data
White areas are clouds.
California and Nevada
Color composite image using channels 1, 2, and 3.
The smoke is greatly reduced from yesterday's image.
The largest area of smoke in this image is near Yosemite
National Park, not far from the Nevada border
(Latest news from Yosemite).
The bright spot near the center of the border of northern California
is snow on Mount Shasta (14,162 feet). See
yesterday's pass for fire
identification.
Oregon
Color composite image using channels 1, 2, and 3.
There is not a lot of fire activity in this view. Some fire scars
might be visible in this image, they are definitely visible in the
Hell's Canyon image (see below). Volcanic peaks in the Cascade
Range show well. The higher peaks are snow capped and show as
yellow-white bright spots in a vertical chain about 1/3 the width of
the state from the Pacific Ocean. From the north:
Mt. Adams (in WA), the largest in this view; just to it's west is the
blue/gray colored blast
zone of Mt. St. Helens (the small dark spot on the northeast side
of the blast zone is Spirit Lake); southward from Mt. Adams is
Mt. Hood, Mt. Jefferson, and the Three Sisters. Further south in the
same line Crater Lake is visible as a dark circle.
Due east from Hell's Canyon, touching the eastern Idaho border, is another, smaller blue area. This is a scar from a fire that occured 9 days ago (The Hell's Canyon fire was also more active). The channel 3 image can be used to pinpoint those fires. A smaller fire scar is seen to it's southwest. Smoke from a still active fire is visible in the southwest corner of this image.
An uncorrected view of the
Cascades using AVHRR channel 2 to cut through the haze is like
looking out the window of a spacecraft. The view is from straight above
central Wyoming and Montana (see pass map) and is toward the west (slightly
south). The Pacific Ocean appears black at the top of the image, with some
white clouds and sea fog along the coast. The left edge of the image is
northern California, the right edge is Washington state. The black curve
near the right is the Columbia River flowing away from the viewer and into
the Pacific. Inland but parallel to the coast is a darker band which is
the higher forested parts of the Cascade Range. White spots along this
range are the higher, snow covered, volcanos. Mt. Rainier is the white
spot in the Cascades just below the mouth of the Columbia River. To the
left of Mt. Rainier is Mt. Adams which actually looks like a peak, it
has a dark area around it. The next white spot south (left), just across
the river is Mt. Hood, then Mt. Jefferson, then the Three Sisters.
Further along the range toward the south is Crater Lake and Mt. Shasta
in California (if you know where to look). A white vertical band of
cirrus clouds cuts off the left 1/3 of the image.
Southern Idaho
Color composite image using channels 1, 2, and 3.
The fire scar from yesterday's fire appears as a small blue patch
near the southern border of Idaho at about -115.5 degrees longitude.
The lighting is different in this mid-day image, but
yesterday evening's
low-sun-angle image may be used to pinpoint the location of the
fire. The larger similar blue patches to the northeast of the fire
location are more likely lava flows on the Snake River Plain.
Yesterday's view shows no trace of the fire scar.
A late spring image
(1996 June 6)
gives another view of this area when far more snow was on the mountains.
Utah
Color composite image using channels 1, 2, and 3.
Yesterday's fire
shows no sign of smoke in this image. The fire position can be pinpointed
from yesterday's
channel 3 image.
