A Few Hot Sites for Seeing Hot Spots

The satellite picture of the Southern California coast unfolds on the computer screen to show what appears to be another perfect day.

It’s Oct. 21, 1996, and there is not even a cloud to block the view of the coast line, mountain ranges and valleys, all depicted by the infrared-sensitive satellite camera in various shades of gray.

But as the picture continues toward full resolution, four small, distinct purple blotches appear on the otherwise monochromatic landscape. One is on the shoreline, where Malibu is located. The other three are to the south, near San Diego.

It is not a perfect day. These are the fires that hit Southern California last week, charring thousands of acres, destroying more than 100 homes and injuring several firefighters.

This amazing satellite picture, taken from 500 miles above the Earth, is available to anyone who can access the World Wide Web on the Internet. It’s on a site, maintained by Johns Hopkins University, called “Satellite Observations of Forest Fires,” located at ftp://fermi.jhuapl.edu/www/seaspace/gallery/fire/fire.html.

Next time someone challenges the notion that the Internet can change your perspective on the world, show them this picture.

Satellite photos of Earth are featured on numerous Web sites. The Johns Hopkins shots are part of an experimental series begun on Aug. 18 with images that show fires in Northern and Southern California, a blaze in Hell’s Canyon in Idaho and a grass fire in Montana.

The satellites that took these pictures are in polar orbits traveling four miles per second, and taking pictures six times a second. The Oct. 21 image came from a satellite simply known as NOAA-14 (we’ve become so blase about satellites that they no longer get real names), run by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

The vast majority of satellite pictures on the Web, however, are on weather-themed sites. Some are run by large companies, others by individual enthusiasts who either download images from other sites or in a few cases, capture the satellite signals themselves (one site gives instructions for how a satellite receiver can be built for less than $1,000).

Most of the weather images come from satellites in the series called GEOS, which stands for Geodetic Earth-Orbiting Satellite. These stationary orbit spacecrafts are at a much higher altitude--about 22,000 miles--than the NOAA models.

A handy Web site that can be used to locate an image of a particular area is “Live Weather Images” at https://www.geocities.com/SunsetStrip/7033/weather.html. Here you can find links to pictures that cover various parts of North America and Europe.

It’s a dream site for weather freaks--also here are current and long-range forecasts for numerous areas, plus rainfall charts, ultraviolet indexes, lightning strike data and maps that show seismic activity in Northern and Southern California.

Another site that is easy to use is operated by the Accu Weather company, which updates its satellite pictures about every three hours, unless you pay a fee that gives you access to their continuously updated subscription service.

The address is https://www.AccuWeather.com/www/vol3/GETWX/GETWX.HTM.

Much of the info on these sites is highly technical and beyond the scope or interest of casual observers. But that doesn’t lessen the fascination with the satellite images.

All the reporters and photographers who had been out in the middle of the fires, covering them for The Times, had to stop by my computer and see the NOAA-14 picture.

“Wow,” said one, who only a few hours before had been shielding himself from the heat of the flames and coughing on the smoke. “I can see our fire from here.”

* Cyburbia’s e-mail address is david.colker@latimes.com.