Image Showcase – GINA https://gina.alaska.edu Tue, 05 May 2026 22:47:00 +0000 en-US hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=7.1.3 https://gina.alaska.edu/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/Asset-2@0.5x.png Image Showcase – GINA https://gina.alaska.edu 32 32 2025 Fire Points Video https://gina.alaska.edu/2025-fire-points-video/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=2025-fire-points-video Tue, 05 May 2026 22:45:38 +0000 https://gina.alaska.edu/?p=5838

The 2026 wildfire season is underway in Alaska, with an official start date of April 1, 2026. As we look ahead to this summer, let’s take a look back at last fire season. This animation shows a time lapse of fire heat points detected by GINA over the course if the 2025 Alaska fire season, from May 17 to August 17, 2025. 

Recent fire points are displayed as bright red and fade to brown after a few days. Fire points frequently appearing in the same location indicate an actively burning wildfire. This product doesn’t detect points that are under cloud cover or thick smoke. This product is used by the Alaska Fire Service for detecting active fires, which can be viewed on the Alaska Interagency Coordination Center Dashboard. 

Check in on GINA’s homepage for updated fire points videos, which will be posted weekly during the 2026 season or visit GINA’s wildfire resources page to delve deeper into satellite remote sensing of wildfire and stay up to date as the 2026 season progresses. 

]]> Visualizing the southerly extent of Bering Sea Ice with VIIRS https://gina.alaska.edu/visualizing-the-southerly-extent-of-bering-sea-ice/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=visualizing-the-southerly-extent-of-bering-sea-ice Thu, 22 Jan 2026 01:15:53 +0000 https://gina.alaska.edu/?p=5386

This VIIRS DayLandCloud RGB captures the southerly extent of Bering Sea ice of the south western coast of Alaska, as of January 14, 2026. The DayLandCloud RGB is used to distinguish snow and ice from clouds. Sea ice is pictured in darker blue while snow on land is captured in a brighter cyan.

Like the VIIRS DayLandCloud RGB this SnowCloud Discriminator is used to distinguish ice and snow from clouds. However, unlike an RGB, the SnowCloud Discriminator uses the Day/Night band (DNB), meaning it can make observations in the dark!  

]]> Aerosol Optical Depth Product in Use for Monitoring Smoke https://gina.alaska.edu/aerosol-optical-depth-product-in-use-for-monitoring-smoke/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=aerosol-optical-depth-product-in-use-for-monitoring-smoke Tue, 25 Jun 2024 23:05:29 +0000 https://gina.alaska.edu/?p=4302

Fire season is in full swing here in Alaska! The TrueColor RGB shows a scene similar to what the eye would see. Smoke is a wispy light grey color while clouds are brighter white. The Aerosol Optical Depth (AOD) product is designed to provide a more quantitative view of smoke, ranging from thin in green to thick in red. Blues and purples are not significant. The AOD cannot identify smoke in the clouds.

]]> Fire Season 2024 Updates https://gina.alaska.edu/fire-season-2024-updates/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=fire-season-2024-updates Wed, 19 Jun 2024 22:28:19 +0000 https://gina.alaska.edu/?p=4266

Starting June 21 and updated every Monday, fire points videos will be posted to keep track of Alaska’s fire season. Consistent with last year’s summary, each video shows a timelapse of the fire heat points detected by GINA over the course of the 2024 Alaska Fire Season. Recent fire points are displayed as bright red and fade to brown after a few days. Fire points frequently appearing in the same location indicate an actively burning wildfire. This product doesn’t detect points that are under cloud cover or thick smoke, and is used by the Alaska Fire Service for detecting active fires on the Alaska Wildland Fire Information Map.

Table of Contents

Fire Points

August 19
August 12
August 5
July 29
July 22
July 15
July 8
July 1
June 24
June 21
]]> Zombie Fires Becoming Active in British Columbia https://gina.alaska.edu/zombie-fires-becoming-active-in-british-columbia/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=zombie-fires-becoming-active-in-british-columbia Wed, 08 May 2024 18:54:48 +0000 https://gina.alaska.edu/?p=4167
Remnants of old fires from 2023 are getting active again in northeast British Columbia. Called “zombie fires” for how they overwinter, these fires continue to burn even under snow. This image from May 7th 2024 shows the VIIRS DayFire product overlaid with VIIRS fire points, highlighting where the reanimated fires are burning on the edges of last year’s burn scars, which are colored a dark red.

This pair of images from about an hour later shows a closer image of one of the fires. In both the VIIRS DayFire product at left, and the VIIRS 3.74 um “Shortwave Infrared” band at right, the actively burning fire is highlighted thanks to the infrared channels. The fire radiative power (FRP) is at 419 MW.

]]> DayLandCloud with Snowfall and Rainfall Overlay https://gina.alaska.edu/daylandcloud-with-snowfall-and-rainfall-overlay/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=daylandcloud-with-snowfall-and-rainfall-overlay Tue, 18 Jul 2023 18:25:01 +0000 https://gina.alaska.edu/?p=3866

This image from July 13th 2023 shows a DayLandCloud RGB overlaid with with a new Snow Fall Rate product to show snow fall over the ice pack (cyan-blue-green) and a MiRS RainRate showing precipitation over western and eastern Alaska (pink-blue-cyan). This combination of products enables us to see what kind of if any precipitation is associated with cloud cover, and the rate of precipitation.

]]> Cloud-Free Day in the Alaskan Winter https://gina.alaska.edu/cloud-free-day-in-the-alaskan-winter/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=cloud-free-day-in-the-alaskan-winter Mon, 13 Feb 2023 20:08:32 +0000 https://gina.alaska.edu/?p=3568

What does Alaska in winter look like on a cloud free day? Like this! NOAA-20 captured this True Color RGB image on February 2, 2023 at 23:26 UTC, which shows much of Alaska free of thick clouds. While there is some thin cloud cover in the Interior, we can still see the outline of the coast, the craggy mountain peaks of the Alaska and Brooks range, the winding lines of rivers in the Southwest, and some brown vegetation in the Interior.

You may also notice the far eastern edge of the Russian coastline looks a little off which is because of the ice that is locked fast to the mainland, making it seem like there’s much more solid land than usual.

See the VIIRS True Color RGB Quick Guide for more information.

]]> Season’s First Snow in Cook Inlet https://gina.alaska.edu/seasons-first-snow-in-cook-inlet/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=seasons-first-snow-in-cook-inlet Wed, 19 Oct 2022 16:54:30 +0000 https://gina.alaska.edu/?p=3364

The first snow of winter has started to accumulate across Alaska. This True Color RGB image taken on October 13 using VIIRS on the NOAA-20 satellite shows Cook Inlet and the Kenai Peninsula, with winter beginning to take hold. The mountains of the Kenai, Talkeetna and the Alaska Range are capped with snow, but give way to the dark vegetation of the Susitna river valley west of Anchorage. A magnificent view!

See the VIIRS True Color RGB Quick Guide for more information.

]]> DayLandCloud and Fire https://gina.alaska.edu/daylandcloud-and-hog-butte-fire/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=daylandcloud-and-hog-butte-fire Fri, 24 Jun 2022 19:04:05 +0000 https://gina.alaska.edu/?p=2963

It’s fire season, and that means its time for fire detection. This image is a DayLandCloudFire RGB of the Hog Butte fire, overlaid with heat points.  The red underneath the cyan clouds is the fire and burned ground below. Notice that there are far fewer points than might be expected! Clouds can be a problem with heat point detection and these points were only caught thanks to some breaks in the clouds.

Check out these quick guides on the DayLandCloudFire RGB and our fire heat points (also known as the VIIRS Active Fire algorithm).

]]> May’s Spring Snowmelt Across Alaska https://gina.alaska.edu/may-spring-snowmelt-across-alaska/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=may-spring-snowmelt-across-alaska Wed, 18 May 2022 19:03:04 +0000 https://gina.alaska.edu/?p=2634

It was declared green-up in Fairbanks on May 17, 2022 but there’s still snow across Alaska. This RGB image taken on May 17 using VIIRS with the NOAA-20 satellite shows different types of snow. Dark blue is old or wet snow & light blue is new or dry snow. High cirrus clouds that are composed of ice are shown as cyan and water-based clouds are white. The lighter cyan shows some areas of new snow in parts of the Seward Peninsula and western north slope.

See the VIIRS Snowmelt RGB Quick Guide for more information.

 

]]>