[NASA] Fire’s Footprint on Santa Rosa Island

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May 16, 2026

May 24, 2026

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A false-color image of Santa Rosa Island from May 16, 2026, shows a dark-brown burned area toward the bottom-right. A thin, bright orange line runs along the burned area, indicating the active fire front.

NASA Earth Observatory / Lauren Dauphin

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A false-color image of Santa Rosa Island from May 24, 2026, shows a reddish-brown burned area spanning the eastern third of the island.

NASA Earth Observatory / Lauren Dauphin

May 16, 2026May 24, 2026

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A false-color image of Santa Rosa Island from May 16, 2026, shows a dark-brown burned area toward the bottom-right. A thin, bright orange line runs along the burned area, indicating the active fire front.

NASA Earth Observatory / Lauren Dauphin

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A false-color image of Santa Rosa Island from May 24, 2026, shows a reddish-brown burned area spanning the eastern third of the island.

NASA Earth Observatory / Lauren Dauphin

May 16, 2026

May 24, 2026

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Image Details

The burned area from a wildland fire on Santa Rosa Island in California’s Channel Islands National Park grows between May 16 (left) and May 24, 2026 (right), in these false-color images captured by the 

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 (Operational Land Imager) on 

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and

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, respectively.

On May 15, 2026, a fire was spotted from aircraft on the southeastern side of Santa Rosa Island, part of California’s Channel Islands National Park. The blaze spread over the next several days, ultimately burning 18,379 acres (7,438 hectares)—about one-third of the island.

These images show the expansion of the fire’s burned area between May 16 (left), the day after it was discovered, and May 24 (right), after the fire’s growth had

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. The Landsat satellite images are false-color to help distinguish burned areas (brown) from healthy vegetation (green). Officials reported the fire was

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by the evening of May 26.

NASA tools utilizing satellite observations, namely

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(Fire Information for Resource Management System) and the

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, show how the fire spread to the north and east over several days. As it advanced, it consumed areas of grassland, coastal sage scrub, and

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.

Santa Rosa Island, like the other Channel Islands, is known for its diversity of plant and animal species, some of them rare. Observers were concerned that the fire threatened the island’s

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, a rare type of tree that in the United States grows naturally only on the

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of Santa Rosa Island and near San Diego.

Initial

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by firefighters and unmanned aircraft indicated the Torrey pine stand remained largely intact. The fire mostly burned at lower intensity through the pine areas and spared the canopy. However, some pockets of forest sustained damage where intensity was higher. Along the northwest edge of the fire, suppression crews worked to

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another vulnerable area—the

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—by cooling fuels ahead of the fire’s front.

Local reports suggest the Santa Rosa Island fire is the

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on any of California’s Channel Islands. Some of the islands’

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and

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species are adapted to fire but less dependent on it than their mainland counterparts, according to the National Park Service, because naturally occurring fire is less frequent on the Channel Islands.

NASA Earth Observatory images by Lauren Dauphin, using Landsat data from the 

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. Story by Lindsey Doermann.

Downloads

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May 16, 2026

JPEG (2.50 MB)

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May 24, 2026

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References & Resources

• Capital Public Radio (2020)
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  . Accessed May 29, 2026.
• InciWeb (2026, May 28) 
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  . Accessed May 29, 2026.
• NASA Earth Observatory (2026, May 20)
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  . Accessed May 29, 2026.
• National Park Service, 
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  . Accessed May 29, 2026.
• Santa Barbara Independent (2026, May 21)
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  . Accessed May 29, 2026.

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