Dixie and Caldor Wildfires Locator Maps - 2021

  • Released Wednesday, June 1, 2022
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Perimeters of Dixie and Caldor wildfires located in California. The extent of the Dixie wildfire is as of October 22, 2021, while the extent of the Caldor wildfire is as of October 6, 2021. The dropdown menu offers multiple resolutions for a 32:27 aspect ratio.

Perimeters of Dixie and Caldor wildfires located in California. The extent of the Dixie wildfire is as of October 22, 2021, while the extent of the Caldor wildfire is as of October 6, 2021. The dropdown menu offers multiple resolutions for a 32:27 aspect ratio.

This map illustrates perimeter data for two California wildfires and allows for the comparison of their size and position. The data is derived from a new automatic fire detection and tracking approach (Chen et al., 2022) based on near-real time active fire detections from the VIIRS sensor on the Suomi-NPP satellite. The tracking system’s algorithm uses new active fire detections to update the total fire perimeter and estimate the position of active fire lines every 12 hours.


The Dixie wildfire, the northern most of the two, was the largest fire in California history with a total area (1,505 sq. miles) just above the size of U.S. state Rhode Island (1,214 sq. miles). In total, the Dixie fire burned for more than 100 days and this map displays the total extent between July 14 and October 22, 2021. The Caldor wildfire, east of Sacramento, is the second fire in California history to cross the Sierra Nevada Mountains. In total, the Caldor fire burned for more than 80 days through the El Dorado National Forest, threatening the communities of Meyers and South Lake Tahoe.


For more details, see the paper here.

Perimeters of Dixie and Caldor wildfires located in California with the state of Rhode Island for size comparison. The extent of the Dixie wildfire is as of October 22, 2021, while the extent of the Caldor wildfire is as of October 6, 2021. The dropdown menu offers multiple resolutions for a 32:27 aspect ratio.

Perimeters of Dixie and Caldor wildfires located in California with the state of Rhode Island for size comparison. The extent of the Dixie wildfire is as of October 22, 2021, while the extent of the Caldor wildfire is as of October 6, 2021. The dropdown menu offers multiple resolutions for a 32:27 aspect ratio.

Perimeter of the Dixie wildfire as of October 22, 2021. The dropdown menu offers multiple resolutions for a 32:27 aspect ratio.

Perimeter of the Dixie wildfire as of October 22, 2021. The dropdown menu offers multiple resolutions for a 32:27 aspect ratio.

Perimeter of the Dixie wildfire as of October 22, 2021, with the state of Rhode Island for size comparison. The dropdown menu offers multiple resolutions for a 32:27 aspect ratio.

Perimeter of the Dixie wildfire as of October 22, 2021, with the state of Rhode Island for size comparison. The dropdown menu offers multiple resolutions for a 32:27 aspect ratio.

Perimeter of the Caldor wildfire as of October 6, 2021. The dropdown menu offers multiple resolutions for a 32:27 aspect ratio.

Perimeter of the Caldor wildfire as of October 6, 2021. The dropdown menu offers multiple resolutions for a 32:27 aspect ratio.

Perimeters of Dixie and Caldor wildfires located in California. The extent of the Dixie wildfire is as of October 22, 2021, while the extent of the Caldor wildfire is as of October 6, 2021. The dropdown menu offers multiple resolutions for a 16:9 aspect ratio.

Perimeters of Dixie and Caldor wildfires located in California. The extent of the Dixie wildfire is as of October 22, 2021, while the extent of the Caldor wildfire is as of October 6, 2021. The dropdown menu offers multiple resolutions for a 16:9 aspect ratio.

Perimeters of Dixie and Caldor wildfires located in California with the state of Rhode Island for size comparison. The extent of the Dixie wildfire is as of October 22, 2021, while the extent of the Caldor wildfire is as of October 6, 2021. The dropdown menu offers multiple resolutions for a 16:9 aspect ratio.

Perimeters of Dixie and Caldor wildfires located in California with the state of Rhode Island for size comparison. The extent of the Dixie wildfire is as of October 22, 2021, while the extent of the Caldor wildfire is as of October 6, 2021. The dropdown menu offers multiple resolutions for a 16:9 aspect ratio.

Perimeter of the Dixie wildfire as of October 22, 2021. The dropdown menu offers multiple resolutions for a 16:9 aspect ratio.

Perimeter of the Dixie wildfire as of October 22, 2021. The dropdown menu offers multiple resolutions for a 16:9 aspect ratio.

Perimeter of the Dixie wildfire as of October 22, 2021, with the state of Rhode Island for size comparison. The dropdown menu offers multiple resolutions for a 16:9 aspect ratio.

Perimeter of the Dixie wildfire as of October 22, 2021, with the state of Rhode Island for size comparison. The dropdown menu offers multiple resolutions for a 16:9 aspect ratio.

Perimeter of the Caldor wildfire as of October 6, 2021. The dropdown menu offers multiple resolutions for a 16:9 aspect ratio.

Perimeter of the Caldor wildfire as of October 6, 2021. The dropdown menu offers multiple resolutions for a 16:9 aspect ratio.

Credits

Please give credit for this item to:
NASA's Scientific Visualization Studio

This page was originally published on Wednesday, June 1, 2022.
This page was last updated on Wednesday, May 3, 2023 at 11:44 AM EDT.

Papers used in this visualization

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

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.