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Twitchell Canyon Fire, Central Utah
The Twitchell Canyon Fire, near central Utah's Fishlake National Forest, was reported to cover approximately 13,383 hectares (134 square kilometers, or 33,071 acres) as of September 21, 2010. The crew on the International Space Station (ISS) took this photograph of the smoke plumes generated by fires close to the southwestern edge of the burned area. The fire was started by a lightning strike on July 20, 2010.
The photograph is highly oblique; that is, it was taken at an angle rather than looking straight down towards the Earth's surface (a nadir view). The ISS was located over a point approximately 509 kilometers (316 miles) to the northeast, near the Colorado/Wyoming border, at the time. Southwesterly winds stretched smoke plumes to the northeast.
While the Twitchell Canyon region is sparsely populated, Interstate Highway 15 is visible at the upper right. A MODIS image acquired a day earlier than the astronaut photograph provides a regional view of the fire. | |
