Amazing Photos of Smoke From Space

Written by: Jonathan Myers

It may look like just clouds streaming off the California coast, but this is actually smoke! These photos are satellite imagery of the smoke from this week's California wildfires taken from space. Since satellites are basically just taking "pictures" of the earth and what is obscuring it, the smoke from the wildfires shows up just as any clouds would. You may also notice the smoke plumes spreading back southwestward over the ocean with the wind. It is no surprise, then, that it is the hot, dry winds originating in the north and east and blowing to the south and west that are helping to fuel the flames, keeping the fires going.