Multiple bushfires burned across Queensland’s Cape York Peninsula on November 14, 2008, when the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on NASA’s Aqua satellite passed overhead and captured this image. Made from a combination of visible and infrared light, the image highlights the location of hotspots (outlined in red) and burned areas (reddish brown). Vegetation is bright green, and bare or sparsely vegetated ground is pinkish-tan. In this kind of satellite image, the intense pink glow within the fire outlines is often a sign of open flames.
NASA image courtesy the MODIS Rapid Response Team. Caption by Rebecca Lindsey.
