Runaway train fire observed from orbitAt about 1 a.m. local time on the morning of July 6 2013 (just

Runaway train fire observed from orbitAt about 1 a.m. local time on the morning of July 6 2013 (just over a  year ago), a train carrying cars full of crude oil parked on rail tracks outside of the town of Lac-Mégantic in the Canadian province of Quebec. What happened next is still being investigated, but somehow, 72 of the oil-carrying cars broke free from the parked train and rolled into the heart of the town, where they derailed and exploded.The final death toll from the fire and explosion was reportedly 47 people. The Suomi-NPP satellite is a recently-launched, Earth-observing satellite in NASA’s fleet. It carries an instrument called VIIRS, the Visible Infrared Imaging Radiometer Suite. It is capable of taking images in both visible and infrared light, meaning it can snap photographs at night. It’s effectively carrying night-vision goggles.This pair of images is a before and after picture of the crash site from that instrument. Before the crash, you see small lights from the town. The picture on the right was acquired at 2:59 a.m. local time, just over an hour after the explosion.The town of about 5,000 people was consumed by a fireball that is nearly as bright as Quebec City to the North, a city of 500,000 people.-JBBPress report:http://www.cnn.com/2013/07/09/world/americas/canada-runaway-train/index.html?hpt=hp_inthenewsImage credit:http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/NaturalHazards/view.php?id=81581Animated images:http://cimss.ssec.wisc.edu/goes/blog/archives/13368Suomi NPP Satellite:http://npp.gsfc.nasa.gov/spacecraft_inst.html -- source link

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