A catalog of NASA images and animations of our home planet

• Credit:

  Jeff Schmaltz, MODIS Rapid Response Team, NASA/GSFC

On the Cape York Peninsula in Queensland, Australia, numerous active fires (red dots) continue to blacken the landscape. A long, fierce drought, likely brought on by El Niño, has been devastating the region for months. A return to normal rainfall patterns is expected early in 2003. This true-color image was acquired by the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on the Aqua satellite on December 12, 2002.

Images & Animations

• Webmaster: Paul Przyborski
• NASA Official: Steven E. Platnick
• Database Updated: May 7, 2013