Bushfires Raging in Southeast Australia

Bushfires Raging in Southeast Australia

Fires in southeast Australia continue their apparent march toward the coast on February 7, 2003. This pair of true- and false-color images from the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on the Terra satellite show active fire fronts marked in red in both images. In the true-color scene (top), smoke fills the skies, while the image below uses false-color image analysis to minimize smoke and enhance the 2-million-plus-acre burn scar, which is deep red against bright green vegetation.

The high-resolution image provided above is 500 meters per pixel. The MODIS Rapid Response System provides these images at MODIS? maximum spatial resolution of 250 meters.

Image courtesy Jacques Descloitres, MODIS Rapid Response Team at NASA GSFC