This satellite view reveals that the fire did not burn everything in a destructive swath. .
Needle-leaf forest stretches away from the Lena River in Russia’s remote eastern reaches. . The brown trees were killed by … The fire was still burning when the 1988 image was acquired on August 23. These four images track one fire in western Yellowstone and the landscape’s gradual recovery over a period of twenty years; they are part of a larger collection of images featured in Burn Recovery in Yellowstone, the latest installment in the Earth Observatory’s ongoing World of Change series. When the inevitable rainless thunderstorms swept across the park, lightning ignited the dry vegetation. These fires were historical for several reasons.
In an average year, approximately 21 fires are ignited in Yellowstone by lightning. This image shows the extent of Arizona’s Wallow Fire on June 15, 2011.
The EO-1 satellite captured these images just as fire swept through the area. In 1988, wildfires raced through Yellowstone National Park, consuming hundreds of thousands of acres. Renowned Yellowstone naturalist Paul Schullery noted that only months before the fires of 1988, fire and plant ecologists had reported that the Yellowstone area historically involved many small fires interspersed every 200–400 years by massive fires that swept across large portions of the park. The new trees grow more quickly (photosynthesize at a faster rate) than older, mature forests. The burned land surrounds Old Faithful and extends throughout western Yellowstone. The burned area is patchy, and the severity of the burn varies from place to place. Mineral-rich geyser fields are pale blue and white, and lakes are dark blue. For hundreds of miles, a blood-red Sun shone through choking, brown skies as flames consumed vast tracts of forest. Because they use and reflect sunlight differently than older forests, the new trees are lighter in color in the 2008 image. The Yellowstone Fires of 1988 June 14, 1988: A small fire starts on Storm Creek, just north of Yellowstone National Park. The spring had been moist, and grass was abundant. This image originally appeared in the NASA Earth Observatory story
By the end of the summer, 50 wildfires (some of them started by people) had burned 793,000 of the park’s 2,221,800 acres.These four images track one fire in western Yellowstone and the landscape’s gradual recovery over a period of twenty years; they are part of a larger collection of images featured in The top image, from 1987, shows the park as it had been for many years. By this time, new pine trees had taken root, and the forest had started to return. More than 20 years after intense fire scorched this national park, the ecosystem is still recovering. Now legendary, the “Summer of Fire” brought people, science, and wild nature together like never before or since. Forests are likely returning elsewhere as well, but the small trees do not produce a dense enough canopy to show up well in the image.Fire is as much a part of Yellowstone as grizzly bears. A catalog of NASA images and animations of our home planet The summer was hot and dry. About 75% of fires in Yellowstone never reach more than 0.1 hectares (0.25 acres) in size. The Landsat-5 satellite acquired this series of images between 1987 and 2008. The 1988 fires undeniably changed Yellowstone's landscape, but they didn't destroy the park. The high-elevation plateau has a short growing season, with hot, dry summers and cold, harsh winters. Many of the lodgepole pine forests and grassy meadows that cover much of Yellowstone’s high plateau need fire to regenerate. In the years following 1988, the forests in Yellowstone grew back healthier than they were before the fires.
The old forest is dark green in the image. First, they burned over 30 percent of the total acreage of the park, and second they marked a significant shift in the way Yellowstone fought fires. Fingers of new forest are most evident intruding into the narrow strip of burned land on the right edge of the image. The summertime forest is broken up by bright green, grassy river meadows and the occasional brush and grass plain, lighter green and tan. The New York Times revisited the Yellowstone fires of 1988 in a 12-minute documentary (below). If the image had been made with visible light, to resemble what a person would see from the air, the smoke would be denser than it is in this infrared image. In such an environment, it will take decades for the forest to reach its former state. The Storm Creek Fire and many other fires would keep burning in Yellowstone until cool, wet weather arrived in the fall. Darker red areas are severe burns, and lighter red areas are less severe.Twenty years after the fire, the burn scar was still evident, though faded to a pale, pinkish tan. In 1988, wildfires raced through Yellowstone National Park, consuming hundreds of thousands of acres. .
One of the lasting lessons from the 1988 fire season in Yellowstone … The fires glow bright pink, and a faint pall of smoke hangs over the scene. The Yellowstone Fires of 1988. Beneath the green vegetation, a pinkish tinge emerges in places, which may indicate old burn scars or simply summer dormant grasses and plants.Just one year later, charred trees and grasses replaced the forests and meadows. Steam rises from a new Yellowstone National Park thermal feature in an area burned 15 years after the 1988 fires. Since 1988, the number of fires has ranged from 1 to 78 each year. Yellowstone Recovers from 1988 Fires.