In late July 2004, after almost two weeks of scorching temperatures, fires broke out across Portugal and Spain, threatening a natural reserve, historic towns, and people's homes. In this image from the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on NASA’s Aqua satellite , captured on July 27, active fire detections made by the sensor are marked in yellow with red outlines. Numerous fires are spreading smoke across the northern part of the country, while in the south (bottom left) a very large fire is burning in the Algarve region, one of the most popular tourist spots in Europe. This fire grew rapidly over the course of the day, appearing as a small “dot” on the image from the previous day.
Image by Jesse Allen, based on data from the MODIS Rapid Response Team, NASA-GSFC
