Landsat 8 Views the Soberanes Fire

By chance, Landsat 8 acquired imagery of the Soberanes fire burning near the California coast between Monterey and Big Sur a few hours after it started on July 22, 2016. Seven days later, on July 29, the fire had grown so much that the surrounding area is almost entirely covered by smoke.

This set of Landsat images shows the region on [left to right] July 22, July 29, and August 8 in true color (using bands 4, 3, and 2) and also in shortwave and near-infrared light (using bands 7, 5, and 4). Active fires, which can be detected based on calculations using the shortwave infrared and near-infrared bands, are shown in red on the true color images. The shortwave and near-infrared images penetrate the smoke to provide a clearer view of the burn scar. In this false-color view, active fires are bright red and orange, scarred land is dark red, and intact vegetation and human development are shades of green.