Across Australia’s “Top End” scattered fires were burning on June 5, 2006, when the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on NASA’s Aqua satellite passed overhead. Places where MODIS detected actively burning fires are marked in red. These relatively early dry-season fires may be intentional burns set by people to reduce the risk of catastrophic fires later in the dry season, when the savannas’ lush grasses become intensely dry and pose a severe fire risk. To read more about the role of fire in Australia’s tropical savanna ecosystems, please visit the Website of the Tropical Savannas CRC.
The high-resolution image provided above has a spatial resolution of 250 meters per pixel. The MODIS Rapid Response System provides daily images of the area at additional resolutions.
NASA image courtesy the MODIS Rapid Response Team, Goddard Space Flight Center
