Fires in Queensland, Australia

Fires in Queensland, Australia

In eastern Australia, in the Queensland Territory, dozens of fires were burning on November 14, 2004, when the Aqua satellite passed overhead and allowed the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) to capture this image. Areas where MODIS detected active fires are marked in red. Halfway down the coastline (right center) is Fraser Island, which terminates in Sandy Cape. A similar, but smaller coastline appendage occurs near bottom right, offshore of the city of Brisbane, which has a gray-tan appearance compared to the surrounding light green vegetation. Several smoky fires are burning northwest of the city.

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