Agricultural fires (marked in red) dotted the state of Punjab in northwestern India on October 15, 2006, when the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on NASA’s Aqua satellite passed overhead and captured this image. The green of the fields, watered by rivers and streams flowing out of the Himalaya Mountains to the north, contrasts sharply with the more arid terrain, which appears tan. About two-thirds of the food grain grown in India is grown in this area. Farmers use fire to clear brush and crop stubble from fields. Although such fires are not necessarily immediately hazardous, they can have a strong impact on weather, climate, human health, and natural resources.
The high-resolution image provided above has a spatial resolution of 250 meters per pixel. The MODIS Rapid Response System provides twice-daily images of the area in additional resolutions and formats.
NASA image courtesy the MODIS Rapid Response Team, Goddard Space Flight Center
