Lightning-triggered bushfires in southern Western Australia had been burning for several days when the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on NASA’s Aqua satellite captured these images of the region on January 11, 2008. The left-hand image shows the area in photo-like natural color, while the right-hand image has been enhanced with MODIS’ observations of shortwave- and near-infrared light. In that image, the burned areas stand out as brick red against the unburned vegetation (bright green). According to news reports, the fire in the Fitzgerald River National Park had scorched about 25,000 hectares (61,776 acres), while the fire in the Jibadji Nature Reserve had burned more than 50,000 hectares (123,552 acres).
The large image provided above has a spatial resolution (level of detail) of 250 meters per pixel. The MODIS Rapid Response Team provides twice-daily images of the region in additional resolutions.
NASA image courtesy the MODIS Rapid Response Team, Goddard Space Flight Center. Caption by Rebecca Lindsey.
