The Yellowstone Fire began in July 1988 in the western US and eventually spread to engulf 5,000 square kilometers in and around Yellowstone National Park. A Landsat Thematic Mapper (TM) image was collected on September 8, 1988 at 10:30 AM and has been used to describe this fire and test new satellite observation techniques designed for use with measurements from the MODIS instrument onboard the Earth Observing System series of satellites.
The two images shown above are 3-channel false color composites constructed from the 7 spectral channels of the TM. The left figure is a composite of the 11, 2.2, and 1.65 micrometer channels shown by the red, green, and blue colors, respectively. This image shows the locations of the fires and the burned areas. Burn scars are warmer than the surrounding area and are therefore shown by pink-red colors.
The yellow-white spots around the burn scars are the active fires. The large burn scar in the lower right part of the image is approximately 2 kilometers wide and 13 kilometers long. The active fire cells are relatively small (60 to 120 meters) with the largest one 300 meters across. The right figure is a composite of the 11, 0.66, and 0.48 micrometer channels shown by the red, green, and blue colors, respectively. This image shows less detail for the burn scars and fires, but clearly shows the smoke plumes.
