The Tassajara fire began on September 19, 2015 and is located in the Carmel Valley, California. Overnight the fire grew to over 1,000 acres, but has been limited to 1,086 acres since then and is 65% contained. There has been one fatality and 10 residences have been damaged or destroyed, numerous outbuildings have also been damaged or destroyed.
The Suomi-NPP VIIRS instrument helps firefighters “see” the fires they are fighting from a distance to understand the size and intensity of the fires. The VIIRS instrument is able to detect light and heat signatures from space and as such can see fires at night. The image above shows the Tassajara fire at night. The fire is noted by the yellow arrow. The VIIRS instrument has images in several spectral bands including visible, near infrared, and infrared in both mid- and long-wave, capabilities to support the acquisition of high resolution atmospheric imagery and generation of a variety of applied products including visible and infrared imaging and detection of fires, smoke and atmospheric aerosols.
NASA image courtesy Jeff Schmaltz LANCE/EOSDIS MODIS Rapid Response Team, GSFC. Caption by Lynn Jenner with information from NPP website