Drought conditions set the stage for an intense fire season in California in 2021
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- Visualizations by:
- Greg Shirah
- View full credits
The 2021 wildfire season in California started amid an ongoing drought and historically low rainfall and reservoir levels. By August, seasonal deficits of rainfall result in anomalously dry soils in large parts of the Western US. Eventually, the vegetation dries out as the roots can’t provide moisture to meet atmospheric demand. This vegetation stress is captured by thermal imaging satellites and by the model as reduced plant growth.
Credits
Please give credit for this item to:
NASA's Scientific Visualization Studio
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Visualizers
- Greg Shirah (NASA/GSFC) [Lead]
- Michala Garrison (SSAI)
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Scientists
- Chris Hain (NASA/MSFC)
- Elijah Orland (UMBC)
- Forrest Melton (California State University, Monterey Bay)
- Sujay Kumar (NASA/GSFC)
- Thomas Holmes (NASA/GSFC)
- Timothy Lahmers (UMD)
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Producer
- Kim Locke (SAIC)
Datasets used in this visualization
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GTOPO30 Topography and Bathymetry
ID: 274 -
GPM Rainfall anomaly for Aug 2021
ID: 1165Integrated Multi-satellitE Retrievals for GPM (IMERG) V06 Precipitation downscaled to 1 km within LIS model
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Rootzone Soil moisture Anomaly August 14, 2021
ID: 1166Anomaly in Rootzone soil moisture based on 20-year record from 1-km LIS-model run, after assimilation of downscaled SMAP surface moisture product (THySM: Thermal Hydraulic disaggregation of SMAP Soil Moisture).
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Evaporative Stress Index (12-weeks) on August 13, 2021
ID: 1167Atmosphere-Land Exchange Inverse (ALEXI) Evaporative Stress Index (ESI) generated by the NASA Short-term Prediction Research and Transition Center (SPoRT), based on MODIS-based thermal infrared observations
Credit: Anderson, Martha C., John M. Norman, John R. Mecikalski, Jason A. Otkin, and William P. Kustas. "A climatological study of evapotranspiration and moisture stress across the continental United States based on thermal remote sensing: 2. Surface moisture climatology." Journal of Geophysical Research: Atmospheres 112, no. D11 (2007).
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Anomaly in Gross Primary Production, August 2021
ID: 1168Anomaly in Gross Primary Production based on 20-year record from LIS-model run
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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.