Satellite Image Shows How Close Rodeo/Chediski Fire Came to Show Low, Arizona

DENVER, July 1, 2002 - Space Imaging, the world's leading provider of Earth imagery and related services to commercial and government markets, today released a satellite image of the land-cover damage from the Rodeo/Chediski Fire just west of Show Low, Arizona. The image was taken by Space Imaging's IKONOS satellite on Friday, June 28. The image provides an overview of how close the fire came to the Torreon Golf Club on the western edge of Show Low.

This 1-meter resolution satellite image shows the how close the Rodeo/Chediski Fire came to the western edge of Show Low, Arizona. The image was collected on June 28, 2002 at 11 a.m. local time by Space Imaging's IKONOS satellite.

Visible is a Forest Service dirt road that runs north and south that acted as a firebreak. The area to the west of the road is blackened and charred. The area to the east of the road was not burned. As measured in the map-accurate satellite imagery, the fire burned to within 500 yards of the Torreon Golf Club and residential community.

According to the U.S. Forest Service, when this image was taken, the fire had consumed 463,000 acres and had become Arizona's worst wildfire ever. This type of imagery is used to assess and measure damage to forest and other types of land cover. It also is used for fire modeling, disaster preparedness, insurance and risk management and disaster mitigation efforts to control erosion or flooding after the fire is out. One-meter high-resolution imagery from IKONOS can also be used to evaluate damage to individual homes and structures at a time when people have been evacuated and don't know what has happened to their property.

The 1600-pound IKONOS satellite travels 423 miles above the Earth's surface at a speed of 17,500 miles per hour. It's the world's first commercial high-resolution remote sensing satellite and can see objects on the ground as small as one-meter square. As of this month Space Imaging has collected more than 800,000 images of the earth's landmass, representing imagery over every continent.

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Source: Material used in press releases is often supplied by external sources and used as is.