The destructive power of the Cedar Fire, which came to within 25
miles (40 kilometers) of San Diego, is graphically shown in this
satellite image from the European Space Agency’s
Proba spacecraft.
Proba routinely provides scientists with detailed environmental images
thanks to a
Compact High-Resolution Imaging Spectrometer (CHRIS).
Acquired on Nov. 5, 2003, when the worst of the fires was over, the
CHRIS image shows a fire-scarred rural area north of the San Vicente
Reservoir (the north tip of the reservoir is toward the top right).
Santee, an outlying district of San Diego, is visible at the bottom
right of the image, with Poway toward the top left. At the center of the
burnt area is what little remains of the Sycamore Canyon Open Space
Preserve. At one point, the fire formed a wall of flame about 43 miles
(70 kilometers) across. But milder weather, rain and snow came to the
aid of firefighters as they worked to control the blaze.
Fire descended on Southern California in late October, with more than
a dozen separate blazes fanned by the harsh Santa Ana desert winds
across mountainous forests and brush land to threaten suburban
communities. An estimated 741,000 acres (300,000 hectares) was burned,
and the economic impact is reported to total $2 billion (€1.74
billion).
