Breathtaking Satellite Snapshots Reveal LA Wildfires’ Smoke Plume

Smoke from the wildfires that have wreaked havoc in the Los Angeles region can even be spotted from outer space.

The National Aeronautics and Space Administration earlier this week released satellite images depicting smoke plumes that have obscured the Southern California atmosphere.

The image displayed below was captured by the European Space Agency’s Sentinel-2 satellite shortly after the Palisades Fire ignited on Tuesday morning, as noted by NASA, illustrating a plume of smoke drifting towards the coastline.

Later on Tuesday, NASA’s Aqua satellite recorded the smoke once it had drifted well over the Pacific Ocean.

Smoke drifting off the coastline is also detectable from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite (GOES). The GeoColor imagery below provides a six-hour time-lapse view of the Pacific Southwest from Saturday that “appears approximately as it would if seen with human eyes from space,” according to NOAA.

The NOAA’s recently updated GeoColor imagery of the Pacific Southwest can be accessed here.

The wildfires have ravaged 39,000 acres in the LA region, annihilating over 12,000 structures and claiming at least 13 lives. Tens of thousands of residents are still under evacuation mandates.