GPS World, June 2016
WATCH MARKET MAPPING 2 Hell on Earth O n May 1 a wildfire ignited southwest of Fort McMurray Alberta Canada At first wildfire MWF 009 seemed like others residents had experienced smoke and haze but no real danger Two days later the winds shifted The fire swept through Fort McMurray destroying more than 1600 homes and buildings and forcing the largest wildfire evacuation in Albertas history People described it as hell on Earth comparing the disaster to movies war and the apocalypse By the end of the week the fire had grown to more than 101000 hectares significantly larger than the city of Calgary As of press time the fires continue to spread across northeast Alberta impacting Canadas oil sand operations and into the neighboring province of Saskatchewan The wildfire may become the most costly disaster in Canadian history still burning This false color image shows burned areas in yellow and healthy vegetation in purple The bright spots are where the fire was actively burning when the image was taken 50 GPS WORLD WWW GPSWORLD COM JUNE 2016 Image NASA Burn Scar On May 4 the Landsat 7 satellites Enhanced Thematic Mapper Plus acquired this falsecolor image combining shortwave infrared near infrared and green light bands 5 4 2 Near and short wave infrared help penetrate clouds and smoke to reveal hot spots of fire red smoke white and burned areas brown DigitalGlobes WorldView 3 satellite WV 3 peered through smoke using shortwave infrared to take this image on May 5 GIS analysts can also measure the intensity of the fire Image courtesy of DigitalGlobe 2016 Ember rain The entire city population of 88000 evacuated in a rush many through falling embers from wildfires beside roadways Screenshot from Welcome To Hell Driver Escapes Fort McMurray Fire GlobalLeak News YouTube
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