On May 3, 2013, the NOAA GOES infrared and visible imagery were combined to create an animation that showed the plume of smoke from the fire. The smoke plume is seen blowing west and out over the eastern Pacific Ocean. The animation runs 17 seconds and shows the smoke plume from May 3 at 1415 to 2000 UTC (10:15 a.m. to 4 p.m. EDT) was created by the NASA GOES Project, located at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Md.
According to Reuters news, the Springs Fire has now consumed as much as 28,000 acres of brush in the coastal area located northwest of Los Angeles. The fire started on Thursday, May 2, and by Sunday, May 5, the weather allowed firefighters to put containment lines around the fire.
NOAA's GOES-15 or GOES-West satellite sits in a fixed orbit that continually monitors the weather over the western U.S.