New York, Aug 8 (IANS): A fighter jet has taken some stunning pictures of a huge "fire cloud" above California where wild-fires have been burning for days.
An F-15C Eagle fighter jet captured the developing fire clouds which can inject smoke and pollutants into the atmosphere, affecting air quality over a large area.
Earlier, in a rare event, satellite images from Nasa's Terra satellite showed the evolution and rapid expansion of the fires.
"Many areas of active burning expanded significantly between the satellite overpasses, as smoke plumes blossomed into towering pyrocumulus clouds," NASA said.
Known as fire clouds, pyrocumulus are tall, cauliflower-shaped clouds and appear as opaque white patches hovering over darker smoke.
California has declared a state of emergency following one of the "most severe droughts on record".
Wildfires broke out at the start of the month, with fires spreading and leaving over 100,000 acres charred in just a few days.