Bushfires rage on in southeast Australia on January 25, 2003. Smoke is covering the southeastern corner of the continent and reaching out over the Pacific Ocean in this true-color Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) from the Aqua satellite. At top center, a large cluster of fires is burning northwest of Sydney, whose metropolitan area makes a mushroom-shaped clearing in the forests. At the bottom left of the image, several fires (red dots) have been detected on Tasmania, contributing to the regional haze.
According to reports from Tuesday, January 28 (southeast Australia local time), light rain in parts of Victoria over the weekend provided only a brief pause to the steadily spreading bushfires, and weather conditions were expected to become increasingly favorable for fire activity by mid-week.
Image courtesy Jacques Descloitres, MODIS Rapid Response Team at NASA GSFC
