i Detection of Smoke and Dust Aerosols Using Multi-sensor Satellite ...

3.4 Results
3.4.1 Georgia 2007 fire
Smoke plumes caused by major wildfires in Georgia started on April 16, 2007
greatly impacted the local air quality, the public health, and even the climate to some
extent. The Sweat Farm Road Fire, located ten miles southwest of the city of Waycross,
Georgia, was caused by a tree limb suddenly fell down on a power line and, fanned by
strong winds, quickly became a major fire. Prolonged drought conditions and record low
water levels in the Okefenokee Swamp expedited this big wildfire burning with diversity
of woods and vegetations. The Big Turnaround Fire was an extension of the Sweat Farm
Road Fire, located 8 miles west of Folkston, Georgia and 10 miles south of Waycross,
Georgia. The total burned areas of two major wildfires reach to 389,722 acres including
330,114 acres in the wildlife refuge (http://inciweb.org/incident/675/). Due to the danger
from the rapidly growing blaze, thousands of residents in and around the town of
Waycross were evacuated during the early days of this Georgia fire.
The consecutive smoke images of Georgia wildfires during April 19 to May 21 are
generated at 1 km spatial resolution (http://eastfirelab.gmu.edu/gafire/). Several examples
at different time and under different condition are displayed in Figs. 3.9 and 3.10. The
smoke pixels are marked in blue color.
The MODIS has the capability of generating RGB true color image which could be
used for validation. The true color images of 04/29/07 and 05/20/07 are also plotted in
Fig. 3.9 and Fig. 3.10, respectively. Comparing smoke images with true color images, it
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