The detailed answer I think is pretty cool. The whole image was pieced together from many smaller images obtained over successive nights, as the satellite made progressively shifting sweeps over the planet. A particular block of land would be imaged one night, the block geographically next to it on a different pass a little later, etc. As a particular fire burned its way across the land, the same fire would get pictured again and again, as it moved from its old block on one day into a new block being imaged the next day. In essence, what we're seeing in each bright squiggle, is the whole area burned by a single wildfire across the 9 days in April or the 13 days in October, assembled from night after night of reimaging where each fire was now.
Reality: often as cool as any conspiracy theory. :-)
![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2012-12-12 02:36 am (UTC)Reality: often as cool as any conspiracy theory. :-)