Fires in Southeast Asia

Fires in Southeast Asia

Scores of fires were burning across Southeast Asia on March 9, 2005, when the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on NASA’s Aqua satellite captured this image. Active fires detected by MODIS have been marked with red dots. The agricultural burning season is a time of increased haze across the region. In this image, haze is widespread, giving the whole scene a softened look. An especially thick area of smoke runs diagonally through the center of the scene, dirtying the clouds at upper right and spreading over the Andaman Sea at lower left.

NASA image created by Jesse Allen, Earth Observatory, using data obtained courtsey of the MODIS Rapid Response team.