Fires Flare up in Portugal and Spain

Fires Flare up in Portugal and Spain

Several large and smoky wildfires were burning across Spain and Portugal in the hot, dry conditions of early October 2005. This image of the fires (outlined in red) was collected by the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on NASA’s Terra satellite on October 6, 2005. Portugal has been plagued with devastating wildfires this season, particularly in July and August. Much of the Iberian Peninsula has experienced severe drought and higher-than-normal temperatures this year. The high-resolution image provided above has a spatial resolution of 250 meters per pixel. The MODIS Rapid Response System provides this image at additional resolutions.

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