In northwest India near the Indus River, irrigation supports agricultural production in the Punjab and Haryana provinces of the nation. In this image, numerous agricultural fires are burning in the region, and are marked with red dots. Smoke from the fires is probably contributing significantly to the regional haze seen in the image; however, dust and urban pollution could be factors as well. The haze gets trapped at the base of the Himalaya Mountains (upper right). This image was captured by the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on the Aqua satellite on October 25, 2004. MODIS has detected fires in the region each day in the week leading up to the day of the image.
NASA image courtesy Jacques Descloitres, MODIS Rapid Response Team, NASA-Goddard Space Flight Center
