Google Earth

San Diego, California Fires - See Smoke in Google Earth

While learning about the fires that are affecting my friends and fellow classmates in California, I found some very useful information provided by Google Maps*. The NOAA has provided many satellite images (events, web site). CNN has also been using Google Earth to show maps of the fires. NASA has also released new satellite images of the smoke.

And here is a great resource from the MODIS Active Fire Mapping Program and the US Forest Service - they have some great maps for currently active fires in various map formats - the one for Google Earth is particularly useful.

Also, there is a fire map being managed by radio station KPBS in San Diego with up-to-date information about the situation there. The fire map is available in Google My Maps (see below), and you can use the KML option to view the map in Google Earth . via Google Lat Long. Here is the map:

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*This article has been adapted from an original post at the Google Earth Blog.