Fires in Southeast Asia

Fires in Southeast Asia

Numerous fires were scattered across Southeast Asia on January 21, 2007, when the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on NASA’s Aqua satellite passed overhead and captured this image. Places where MODIS detected actively burning fires are outlined in red. The widespread nature of the fires, their location, and the time of year (the dry season) suggests that many of the fires are related to agriculture. Although such fires are not necessarily immediately hazardous, they can have a strong impact on climate, air quality and public health, and natural resources.

The high-resolution image provided above has a spatial resolution of 250 meters per pixel. The MODIS Rapid Response Team provides daily images of the area in a variety of resolutions and formats.

NASA image courtesy the MODIS Rapid Response Team, Goddard Space Flight Center.