NASA Satellite Shows Massive Scale Of Tucson's Bighorn Fire

TUCSON, AZ — On Monday, a NASA satellite trained its instruments on the massive Bighorn wildfire near Tucson, which has triggered weeks of evacuation orders since it was ignited by a lightning strike on June 5.

The resulting image, captured by NASA's Advanced Spaceborne Thermal Emission and Reflection Radiometer (ASTER) instrument aboard the Terra satellite, covers some 600 square miles. The red areas do not denote flames, but actually show vegetation, space officials said.

Areas scorched by the wildfire appear dark gray.

The ASTER captures visible and thermal wavelengths, which allow scientists to record various events on the Earth's surface, including volcano activity, crop stress, and coral reef degradation, NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory said in a news release.

In Tucson on Wednesday, fire officials announced that the Bighorn fire has spread to 118,370 acres and is 54 percent contained. Earlier in the week, officials expanded evacuations orders to additional communities in the Catalina Foothills.