Widespread agricultural (slash-and-burn) fires across northeastern India and Myanmar on the afternoon of March 20, 2006, left a shroud of smoke hanging over the landscape the following morning. These images of the area were captured by the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on NASA’s Terra (March 21) and Aqua (March 20) satellites. Fires have been burning throughout the region since February, as people prepare for spring planting. While these fires are not necessarily immediately hazardous, such widespread burning can have a strong impact on air quality and human health, natural resources, and climate. The high-resolution image provided above has a spatial resolution of 500 meters per pixel. The MODIS Rapid Response System provides daily images of this area in a variety of resolutions and formats.
NASA image courtesy the MODIS Rapid Response Team, Goddard Space Flight Center
Hundreds of fires were burning in northeastern India and Myanmar in late February and early March 2006.
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