updated hourly (at 1 min past each hour)

August 22: As I write this, the Timber Fire has escaped into the Ventana wilderness, entering into Lion Creek and Big Sur River South Fork.  With drier, warmer conditions expected growth will increase, especially if reaching areas not burnt by the Soberanes Wildfire of 2016. 
August 26: The Plaskett Fire is now burning in the Silver Peak wilderness. 

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So I want to report here on what Big Sur Trailmap is displaying on its 2D interactive map and 3D map. 

Aircraft IR (infrared) overflights provide daily (usually) perimeters of the burn extent - flight timing varies with CalFire and USFS aircraft used.  More frequent observations come from satellite IR hits, notably three NASA VIIRS (nominal 375m resolution) and two older MODIS (nominal 1000m resolution) satellites- their passes are irregularly timed, typically with 5-7 passes per day. 

In addition, on the 2D interactive map a 'Soil Burn Severity' from the 2016 Soberanes Wildfire can be displayed, since increased fire intensity is expected when the fire reaches unburnt areas. 

The trailmap checks for new perimeter and satellite data every hour, updating as needed.  Aircraft-derived burn area is a gray (2D) or red (3D) fill with darker border - clicking the perimeter gives observation date/time and burn acres.  Since MODIS satellite resolution is much coarser than for VIIRS, they are treated somewhat differently.  Satellite hits are in 3 age bins with circles for VIIRS and triangles for MODIS, different sizes indicating different confidence levels as shown in the burn Legend (controls must be displayed to see that legend link) which also gives the latest observation times.  On the 2D trailmap, the area covered by a VIIRS satellite is shown as gray overlay and by MODIS satellite as a gray border.  For both 2D and 3D maps, clicking a satellite symbol displays observation date/time, confidence, and area border.  Note that satellite hit age bins are based on the latest hourly run time, as given in the Legend, so refreshing your browser gives up-to-the-hour age information. 

Geeky note on burn perimeters: aircraft IR flights are done by several cooperative sources: CalFire, USFS, and contractors.  Their data is posted to both a California state wildfire site and a federal wildfire site, and the two seem to do their own processing, resulting in slightly different perimeters and calculated areas.  I've also seen 'new' data appear which is actually a re-processing of the previous data on the same site - presumably a 'better' processing.  The trailmap uses the latest data available, wherever found.  Note that IR analysis cannot always be done as smoke, fog, and other factors can block IR. 

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For those using Google Earth, I also create an updated Google Earth KMZ file with perimeter and satellite hits:
Download
Timber Fire Google Earth "network link" file
To install into GoogleEarth

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Finally, I send an email notification whenever perimeter or satellite data is updated (also reports change in 0-6hr hits and acreage respectively) - you can get on (or off) that list by emailing me at .  Typically I get 7-8 emails per day alerting me to perimeter/satellite changes so I can check out the new growth when at PC.