i Detection of Smoke and Dust Aerosols Using Multi-sensor Satellite ...

3.4.2 California 2007 fire
The 2007 California wildfires, stated on October 20, was a major wildfire that
burned across Southern California. The fires brought significant economic and vital loss
to the society. At least 1,500 homes were destroyed (Flaccus, 2007) and over 500,000
acres of land were burned. Nine people died and 85 others were injured, including at least
61 firefighters (CNN, 2007). The Witch fire and the Harris fire are the two biggest
located in San Diego County of all the fires. The Witch Creek Fire, the largest of the
October 2007 wildfires, started in Witch Creek Canyon and quickly spread to other areas
with strong wind. Strong Santa Ana winds, over 100 mph (160 km/h), pushed the fires
west towards the coast (martinez et al., 2007). Many major roads were also closed as a
result of fires and smoke
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/California_wildfires_of_October_2007).
The detected smoke plumes of California fire on October 22 at UTC time 19:20
(Terra) and on October 23 at UTC time 21:40 (Aqua) are plotted in the Fig. 3.12, as well
as the true color images. The detection results clearly show the huge smoke plume is
floated over Pacific Ocean. Although the accuracy of detection results over ocean (dark
surface) is not as good as that over land according to the Table 3.2, the algorithm
observes most areas covered with dense smoke plume.
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