A large fire on the Cape York Peninsula of northern Queensland, Australia, continued to spread on October 8, 2004. The area burned by the fire appears deep brown, and the actively burning portions of the fire that were detected by the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on NASA’s Aqua satellite have been marked in red. Having burned almost all the way to the coast of the Gulf of Carpentaria (left), the eastern edge appears to have become more active on this day (compared to images from previous days). Other fires are scattered in locations across the peninsula, and numerous fires were detected on New Guinea, at top center of the image. The bright turquoise line of the corals of the Great Barrier Reef follows the west coast of the peninsula.
NASA image created by Jesse Allen, Earth Observatory, using data obtained courtesy of the MODIS Rapid Response team.
