Notices by Dr. Eric J. Fielding, PhD (ericfielding@mastodon.social), page 5

The full map is attached below, with the zooms on the Eaton Fire, Palisades Fire, and Lidia Fire, and covers area indicated by the white polygon. Damage is shown by colored pixels of 30m in size, where yellow to red indicates increasingly significant ground surface change before and after the event. Preliminary validation was conducted by EOS-RS. This map should be used as a guidance to identify damaged areas, and may be less reliable over vegetated or mountainous areas.

Colleague Sang-Ho Yun at Earth Observatory of Singapore Remote Sensing Lab and his team made a Damage Proxy Map (DPM) from Copernicus Sentinel-1 radar image over the LA, California area acquired at 2 AM UTC 9 Jan. or 6 PM PT January 8, compared with previous radar images. The map covers the Palisades Fire, Eaton Fire, and early Lidia Fire. Below is detail of the Eaton Fire (JPL is at left edge). Full resolution GeoTIFF and KMZ available from EOS-RS website. https://eos-rs-products.earthobservatory.sg/EOS-RS_202501_USA_California_Wildfires/

Another copter ordered, Sullivan Dip. #PalisadesFire 1/11/25 0823

@ai6yr Fortunately, where I live in Pasadena seems to be below AQI 200, although there is a huge variation in readings from PurpleAir sensors. I wonder if some are actually inside buildings.

@alienghic @John @Laplantgenetics Yes, @weatherwest Daniel Swain has been studying climate change and its effects on California for something like 15 years. See this thread he posted yesterday:
https://mastodon.social/@weatherwest/113800646884480856

@beebrookshire Most of the homes lost in Altadena were older homes, some built a century ago. The fire reached buildings more than a mile from the wildland-urban interface.

@michael_w_busch @sundogplanets I don’t know the details, but the firefighters had several hours of warning for the fire movement towards Mt. Wilson. The winds Thursday were light, so the fire was moving at a moderate and predictable pace. I heard that they set backfires near the peak to stop the advance. The fire approached the peak from the southwest so the communications towers were closest and were saved.

@jlundell @inthehands Yes, it seems likely that Paris Hilton has at least one more residence in another location.

@vaughnhannon Yes, I got the alert. I am in Pasadena, so it was not clear that it was completely crazy but apparently it was

@kenwhite.bsky.social I am afraid that at least half of those Craftsmen houses are gone.

@malachi17RV @michael_w_busch @douglasvb @ai6yr I have not seen any information on the ignition cause of the fire. The Camp Fire some years ago was indirectly caused by wind shaking very old power lines and causing them to break and ignite the fire. PG&E was found liable for poor maintenance as the power line was something like 80 years old with no updates.

@michael_w_busch @douglasvb @ai6yr There have been many fires in the San Gabriel mountains, but this one started at the base of the mountains and moved rapidly into Altadena populated areas. The previous fires were almost entirely in the mountains. The Tubbs fire in Santa Rosa was driven by winds into populated areas.

@Schouten_B @elticoloco They had the Very Large Air Tankers (modified DC-10, not 747) flying over Altadena late in the afternoon on January 8, after the wind decreased. It was not possible to use any aircraft before that.

@lewdmachines @Crusaide Yes, once the strong winds started pushing the fire to the west through Altadena, no amount of firefighters could have stopped it. They might have been able to save some of the houses and buildings, but not all of them. Most of Altadena is 95% destroyed, with only 1 in 20 structures not burned in the fire perimeter.

@Crusaide Yes, the City of Los Angeles cut its fire-fighting budget last year. I don't know the details. Altadena is not part of the City of Los Angeles but is an unincorporated part of Los Angeles County.

@rocketdyke Yes, you are right! I will fix.

This article from 2021 about prison inmates, incl teenagers, used as firefighters will make your blood boil.

"The inexpensive labor of incarcerated firefighters is a critical part of CA’s plan to get through wildfire season, which has become, as a symptom of the climate crisis, an almost year-round concern.

Roughly 27% of the state’s firefighters were incarcerated in 2018 and 2019, earning mere dollars a day while free firefighters make an average $41.76 an hour."
😠
https://www.teenvogue.com/story/wildfire-camp-incarcerated-teens
8/n

@AkaSci @simonbp @spacegeck The NRO buys a lot of data (millions of dollars per year) from commercial satellites, including Maxar optical data and SAR from Capella, Umbra, and ICEYE. They like to get data that is unclassified and can easily be shared with allies, even if they have better classified images.

@clayrivers @StillIRise1963 There is a new fire that started in the Hollywood Hills about three hours ago, called the Sunset Fire.

@clayrivers @StillIRise1963 The KTLA website has live feeds.
https://ktla.com/news/california/wildfires/eaton-fire-altadena-live-updates/