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October 23, 2007
California Fires - Satellite photos, Fire Data in Google Earth
[UPDATE Oct 26: Google has posted a California fires master layer you can download showing several collections of satellite photos and maps.]
Yesterday I posted a KML file showing the smoke from the California fires from space as an image overlay in Google Earth. Since then, I've discovered a number of useful fire maps for Google Earth (and updated the original story). I'm re-organizing the best information here to make it more convenient and add additional information. Here are the main resources I recommend:
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US Forest Service Active Fires Map - The USFS has a web site dedicated to tracking active fires. They use a combination of satellites from space which detect the fires, and combine that with ground-based information to produce the maps. All data points are placemarks with further information. Check out the fire map 
for the continental US which includes the California fires.
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NASA MODIS - NASA's MODIS satellites are continuously taking photos of the Earth from space. They just released new photos showing smoke from the fires in California. A blogger in Spain has released a series of image overlays in Google Earth showing the smoke from several of these photos over the last few days. Open the "Incendios in California" folder and click on the different dates to see several different views of the smoke. [UPDATE: Here is a super image overlay (more detail as you zoom in) of the smoke from space by Matt Fox.]
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KPBS Fire Map - The radio station KPBS is maintaining an up-to-date map of the fire situation in San Diego. You can view the map in either Google Maps (see below), or view the map in Google Earth
. This is an excellent example of being able to use the KML content to view in either 2D or 3D maps (which Google highlighted on their Lat Long blog). Here's the Google Maps version:
View Larger Map -
Time Animations - Google Earth Community member Joey Wade has produced some time animations for Google Earth. The first illustrates the spread of the fire
over time from the MODIS Active Fire Maps. After viewing that, turn it off. Next, Joey produced an animation of the growth of the smoke plume from the biggest fire based on satellite photos. Select the "play" button to the right of the time slider to see the animations. Just make sure only one is selected at a time, or that you have the settings set to "Restrict time to the currently active folder". See post 1, and post 2.
Posted by FrankTaylor at October 23, 2007 08:38 AM
Comments
Posted by: tim at October 23, 2007 09:27 AM
KPBS is providing an EXCELLENT SERVICE with that map showing the evacuation areas, traffic closures and fire locations! There should be one for the WHOLE STATE! OR THE WHOLE COUNTRY! OR THE WORLD!!!!
Posted by: Eddie at October 23, 2007 12:03 PM
I just added the 3 remaining MODIS satellite images as superoverlays. Please update the link in the story to
http://www.gelib.com/maps/Fires/CAFires_nl.kml
This will update with the new images and also any other images I add over the next several days automtically. Thanks.
Posted by: Matt Fox at October 23, 2007 01:58 PM
General question. How often are the images updated? I've had the same views at various locations for quite a while. Just curious.
Posted by: Michael Bacon at October 23, 2007 02:23 PM
Matt,
Thank you for posting this. It has been so frustrating trying to find information like this.
Posted by: sean at October 23, 2007 05:22 PM
Awesome service, thanks for putting this together.
Posted by: michaelm at October 24, 2007 12:30 AM
great map... will be linking to my website... up and running soon.... please post a blog or any interesting story.
www.WitchCreekFire.com
take care San Diego
Mike in Poway
Posted by: Mike at October 24, 2007 01:48 AM
I've created an interactive map of the fires in So Cal. It is available here:
http://web.mac.com/jon.markel/iWeb/Site/SoCalWildfire.html
Jon
Posted by: Jon in Chicago at October 24, 2007 02:54 PM
I've been following the KPBS, LA Times, and OC Register maps in Google Earth, and all of a sudden, this afternoon, all of the icons were lost (they became blue squares with X marks). Can anyone help me get the real icons back?
Posted by: Scott at October 25, 2007 01:35 AM
we have been providing mapping support to the teams managing the poochama and rice fires, and have posted perimeters of the 2007 socal fires as KMLs on our website.
www.northtreefire.com/gis/virtual.php
Posted by: Zeke Lunder at November 4, 2007 11:24 PM
I was wondering is there a time sheet when satellites take those images?
Posted by: wedding photographer at March 31, 2008 11:34 PM
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Great stuff but loading the Google Maps data into the browser page takes too long and freezes the page in the process. It would be great for Google to add an optional "click to load data" parameter as is already done with YouTube videos. If the user wants to see the map data (KML link), click a play button and it loads for next ~15 seconds with a "Loading Data..." message all the while. And if you don't want to look at that content, you can continue to browse the page...