It turns out that the fine airborne particles seen in most forest fires often completely block light in the visible part of the spectrum, but allow SWIR light to pass through almost unaffected. The picture was taken with a visible camera from an aircraft flying above a recent fire on Mount Hood in Oregon . The visible image shows large, billowing clouds of smoke. Using SWIR, the actual progress of the fire, jumping from tree to tree, may be imaged and tracked. This image is courtesy of Cloud Cap Technology.

Click Here to See More.