# Presentation: 847571

## Sicily’s October Sky

**27 October 2002**

## Multi-angle Portrayals of Mt. Etna’s Plume

**29 October 2002**

## Multi-angle Portrayals of Mt. Etna’s Plume

**29 October 2002**

## Clouds and Ice of the Lambert-Amery System, 

**East Antarctica **
**25 October 2002**

**Notes:**
These views from the Multi-angle Imaging SpectroRadiometer (MISR) illustrate ice surface textures and cloud-top heights over the Amery Ice Shelf / Lambert Glacier system in East Antarctica on October 25, 2002. 
The left-hand panel is a natural-color view from MISR's downward-looking (nadir) camera. The center panel is a multi-angular  composite from three MISR cameras, in which color acts as a proxy for angular reflectance variations related to texture. Here,  data from the red-band of MISR's 60o forward-viewing, nadir and 60o backward-viewing cameras are displayed as red, green and blue, respectively. With this display technique, surfaces which predominantly exhibit backward-scattering (generally rough surfaces) appear red/orange, while surfaces which predominantly exhibit forward-scattering (generally smooth surfaces) appear blue. Textural variation for both the grounded and sea ice are apparent. The red/orange pixels in the lower portion of the image correspond with a rough and crevassed region near the grounding zone, that is, the area where the Lambert and four other smaller glaciers merge and the ice starts to float as it forms the Amery Ice Shelf. In the natural-color view, this rough ice is spectrally blue in color. 
Clouds exhibit both forward and backward-scattering properties in the middle panel and thus appear purple, in distinct contrast with the underlying ice and snow. An additional multi-angular technique for differentiating clouds from ice is shown in the right-hand panel, which is a stereoscopically derived height field retrieved using automated pattern recognition involving data from multiple MISR cameras. Areas exhibiting insufficient spatial contrast for stereoscopic retrieval are shown in dark gray. Clouds are apparent as a result of their heights above the surface terrain. Polar clouds are an important factor in weather and climate. Inadequate characterization of cloud properties is currently responsible for large uncertainties in climate prediction models. Identification of polar clouds, mapping of their distributions, and retrieval of their heights provide information that will help to reduce this uncertainty. 
The Multi-angle Imaging SpectroRadiometer observes the daylit Earth continuously and every 9 days views the entire Earth between 82 degrees north and 82 degrees south latitude. These data products were generated from a portion of the imagery acquired during Terra orbit 15171. The panels cover an area of 380 kilometers x 984 kilometers, and utilize data from blocks 145 to 151 within World Reference System-2 path 127. 
Text acknowledgment: Clare Averill (Acro Service Corporation/Jet Propulsion Laboratory), Helen A. Fricker (Scripps Institution of Oceanography). 

## The Biscuit Wildfire

**29 July 2002**

**29 October 2002**

**Notes:**
Ignited by lightning strikes during a record-breaking heat wave, the Biscuit Fire became Oregon's largest wildfire of the past century. Between mid July and early September 2002, it consumed almost 500,000 acres in southern Oregon and northern California. This image pair from the Multi-angle Imaging SpectroRadiometer (MISR) portrays the fire underway and the burn scars on the landscape after the event. Vegetated regions appear red in these false-color views, which were acquired by MISR's vertical-viewing (nadir) camera. Data from the near-infrared, red and blue bands, are displayed as red, green and blue, respectively. This display technique accentuates the contrast between burnt and unburnt areas. 
The left-hand panel captures parts of southern Oregon and northwest California as they appeared on July 29. Smoke plumes emanate from several sections of the Biscuit Fire near the Oregon-California border. Numerous other fires were also burning across Oregon, sending large amounts of smoke seaward over a cloud deck in the Pacific Ocean. 
The right-hand panel portrays the same geographic area on October 29, about seven weeks after the fire had been fully contained. A large, dark-colored burn scar at the site of the Biscuit Fire indicates the area consumed, which included almost the entire Kalmiopsis Wilderness Area and parts of the Siskiyou and Six Rivers National Forests. The fight to suppress the Biscuit Fire was the most expensive fire fighting effort in Oregon's history, with more than 6,000 personnel assisting the battle to suppress the fire and protect thousands of threatened homes. 
The Multi-angle Imaging SpectroRadiometer observes the daylit Earth continuously and every 9 days views the entire globe between 82 degrees north and 82 degrees south latitude. These data products were generated from a portion of the imagery acquired during Terra orbits 13899 and 15297. The panels cover an area of 380 kilometers x 704 kilometers, and utilize data from blocks 56 to 60 within World Reference System-2 path 46. 
Text acknowledgment: Clare Averill (Acro Service Corporation/Jet Propulsion Laboratory).