Spread of the Caldor Fire - 2021
-
- Visualizations by:
- Cindy Starr
-
- Scientific consulting by:
- Doug C. Morton
- View full credits
This visualization shows the spread of the Caldor fire between August 15 and October 6, 2021, updated every 12 hours based on new satellite active fire detections. The yellow outlines track the position of the active fire lines for the last 60 hours, with the latest location of the fire front in the brightest shade of yellow. The red points show the location of active fire detections, while the grey region shows the estimated total area burned. The graph shows the cumulative burned area in square kilometers.
Coming soon to our YouTube channel.
For more details, see the paper here.

This image shows the extent of the Caldor fire on August 21, 2021. The yellow outlines track the position of the active fire lines for the last 60 hours, with the latest location of the fire front in the brightest shade of yellow. The red points show the location of active fire detections, while the grey region shows the estimated total area burned. The graph shows the cumulative burned area in square kilometers.

This image shows the extent of the Caldor fire on August 28, 2021. The yellow outlines track the position of the active fire lines for the last 60 hours, with the latest location of the fire front in the brightest shade of yellow. The red points show the location of active fire detections, while the grey region shows the estimated total area burned. The graph shows the cumulative burned area in square kilometers.
Credits
Please give credit for this item to:
NASA's Scientific Visualization Studio
-
Visualizers
- Cindy Starr (Global Science and Technology, Inc.) [Lead]
- Alex Kekesi (Global Science and Technology, Inc.)
- Andrew J Christensen (SSAI)
- Greg Shirah (NASA/GSFC)
- Horace Mitchell (NASA/GSFC)
- Kel Elkins (USRA)
- Michala Garrison (SSAI)
-
Scientist
- Doug C. Morton (NASA/GSFC) [Lead]
-
Technical support
- Ian Jones (ADNET Systems, Inc.)
- Laurence Schuler (ADNET Systems, Inc.)
Papers
This visualization is based on the following papers:- Chen, Y., Hantson, S., Andela, N. et al. California wildfire spread derived using VIIRS satellite observations and an object-based tracking system. Sci Data 9, 249 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41597-022-01343-0
Datasets used in this visualization
Landsat-8 Band Combination 4-3-2 (Collected with the OLI/TIRS sensor)
Suomi-NPP California Wildfire Spread Derived using VIIRS Observations and an Object-based Tracking System (A.K.A. California Wildfire Spread Derived using VIIRS Observations and an Object-based Tracking System) (Collected with the VIIRS sensor)
Credit: Chen, Yang; Hantson, Stijn; Andela, Niels; Coffield, Shane; Graff, Casey; Morton, Douglas C.; et al. (2022): A Dataset of California Wildfire Spread Derived Using VIIRS Observations and an Object-based Tracking System. figshare. Collection. https://doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.c.5601537.v1
Dataset can be found at: https://springernature.figshare.com/collections/A_Dataset_of_California_Wildfire_Spread_Derived_Using_VIIRS_Observations_and_an_Object-based_Tracking_System/5601537/1
See more visualizations using this data setSRTM DEM (Collected with the SIR-C sensor)
Note: While we identify the data sets used in these visualizations, we do not store any further details, nor the data sets themselves on our site.