Two large forest fires raged on the Canary Islands on the afternoon of July 30, 2007, when the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on NASA’s Aqua satellite captured this photo-like image. Clusters of red dots mark out the locations of the fires on the islands of Tenerife (left) and Gran Canaria (right). More than 2,000 people were evacuated from the fire on Gran Canaria, which had burned through 8,645 acres of woodland, reported the Associated Press on July 30. Thick plumes of smoke blow southwest over the Atlantic Ocean from the fires. The desert coast of Western Sahara and Morocco makes up the right edge of the image. A faint tan veil of dust hangs over the ocean near the coast.
The large image provided above has a resolution of 250 meters per pixel. The image is available in additional resolutions from the MODIS Rapid Response System.
Image courtesy Jeff Schmaltz, MODIS Rapid Response Team at NASA GSFC
