SMOKE PLUMES FROM BURNING OIL FIELDS IN IRAQ SEEN BY NOAA SATELLITES

March 23, 2003 — NOAA polar-orbiting satellites continue to detect oil well fires in Iraq. The latest NOAA satellite image shows thick black smoke in southern Iraq from burning oil fields blowing into western Kuwait. The plumes visible in the NOAA satellite imagery are consistent with NOAA's experience in detecting oil fires in the past from satellites in space. (Click NOAA image for larger view of smoke plume from Iraqi oil wells taken March 23, 2003, at 1:45 a.m. EST. Click here for image without annotations. Please credit “NOAA.)

This image was produced from data taken by the NOAA-17 satellite on March 23 at 1:45 a.m. EST (9:45 a.m. Iraq local time). The image measures 858 x 1023 pixels with NOAA annotations. NOAA-17 is a polar-orbiting NOAA satellite, which flies at about 520 miles above the Earth in an almost north-south orbit.

These images were processed by the NOAA Operational Significant Event Imagery, part of NOAA Satellites and Information.

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Greg Hernandez, NOAA, (202) 482-3091