Everyone now knows about the Station Fire just above Pasadena and its massive plume that hangs over Los Angeles, threatening the communications center of the region and its significant Mt. Wilson observatory, its historic Hale museum and Chara array. A view of it has turned up on the earth observation aggregation service, EOSnap, clearly showing the extent of the carnage from space. What you don't see is the horrific damage in the Angeles National Forest, local structures that have burned and the hazardous air quality that the region is experiencing as a result.
The EOSnap, an international web portal, describes its mission: " We have been working in the field of earth observation for over 13 years. Even after all this time, I am continually surprised by how beautiful and varied our planet is. Every day, we generate photorealistic images from satellite data. I am lucky that this work puts me in the privileged position of observing the planet in great detail. EOSnap is meant to be a small window on our planet that allows all people to appreciate the Earth’s beauty and also, hopefully, a way of increasing public awareness on environmental issues so that such beauty can be preserved for future generations." Luca Mellano (Founder and CEO of Chelys) May 13th, 2008
This site generates worldwide photo documentation and mosaic photo assemblies of geographic earth scans, and is easily viewable. This creates a critical awareness of the scope of global environmental conditions, an awareness necessary to create a regenerative public policy in all nations for the survival of the ecosphere and, of course, human life.