A catalog of NASA images and animations of our home planet

• Credit:

  Jacques Descloitres, MODIS Land Rapid Response Team, NASA/GSFC

The smoke from several forest fires burning in a popular tourism area in the Chilean Andes south of Santiago had drifted far to the south of the fire locations by February 6, 2002. Originally, it appeared as though the smoke would drift northwestward out over the Pacific Ocean (see image), but perhaps the same weather system that brought the cloud bank to the Chilean coast changed the direction of the drifting smoke. At the bottom of this image, the smoke can be seen spilling over the Andes and into Argentina. The dry months of January and February are the peak fire months in Chile.

Images & Animations

• Webmaster: Paul Przyborski
• NASA Official: Steven E. Platnick
• Database Updated: May 22, 2013