Cooler weather helped the firefighters who were battling the bushfires ravaging New South Wales, Australia, but dozens of fires were still burning in the Blue Mountains on October 24, 2013. The Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on NASA’s Aqua satellite acquired this image at 2:55 p.m. local time (3:55 Universal Time) on October 24. Red outlines indicate hot spots where MODIS detected unusually warm surface temperatures associated with fire. Large plumes of smoke were blowing east from the State Mine fire, Howes Swamp fire, and Hungerford Creek fire. Though smaller and now under control, the Linksview Road fire destroyed 193 homes, according to the New South Wales Rural Fire Service.
NASA image courtesy Jeff Schmaltz, LANCE/EOSDIS MODIS Rapid Response Team at NASA GSFC. Caption by Adam Voiland.
