Landsat 5 Image of the Horseshoe Two Fire

NASA has released a Landsat 5 image of the Horseshoe Two Fire which was picked up by the media.  This false color image highlights areas of burned and unburned forest within the Horseshoe Two Fire.  A short animatic was created superimposing this Landsat 5 image on Google Earth.  The nine drainage's discussed in the previous posting were also included as well as other landmarks to help orientate the viewer.  It is clear there is a large area of contiguous forest which is intact covering all the major drainage's in the eastern portion of the Chiricahua Mountains.  The areas of intact forest also appear to cover a range of elevations and are not solely confined to drainage bottoms, suggesting a wide range of habitat was preserved.  More detailed work will be required to further delineate these areas but preliminary indications suggest the fire fighting crews were successful in mitigating the damage.

An angled view from the east showing elevation, drainage's (blue), and contiguous unburned areas (black) as a result of the Horseshoe Two Fire in the Chiricahua Mountains. Click on photograph to view larger image.