Photos: Deep burn scars from 2018 California wildfires seen from space - The Mercury News

NASA Earth Observatory images by Lauren Dauphin, using MODIS data from NASA EOSDIS/LANCE and GIBS/Worldview.
NASA Earth Observatory images by Lauren Dauphin, using MODIS data from NASA EOSDIS/LANCE and GIBS/Worldview.
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NASA Earth Observatory images by Lauren Dauphin, using MODIS data from NASA EOSDIS/LANCE and GIBS/Worldview.
NASA Earth Observatory image by Joshua Stevens, using data from NASA/GSFC/METI/ERSDAC/JAROS, and U.S./Japan ASTER Science Team.
NASA Earth Observatory image by Joshua Stevens, using Landsat data from the U.S. Geological Survey and topographic data from the Shuttle Radar Topography Mission (SRTM).
Mendocino Complex Fire. ER-2 image courtesy of NASA/URSA

The year 2018 has been a record-breaking fire season in California. The Mendocino Complex Fire was the state’s largest, destroying nearly half a million acres. And the Camp Fire was the state’s deadliest with 88 fatalities so far.

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The charred land, or burn scar, from at least nine major wildfires in Northern California are visible from space.

As the weather shifts to more rain, NASA scientists and satellite analysts have been producing maps and damage assessments of the burned areas in the Camp Fire and Woolsey Fire. These maps will be critical to help identify areas that will be more susceptible to landslides.