• Credit:

  Jeff Schmaltz, MODIS Rapid Response Team, NASA/GSFC

The island of Taiwan sits off of the coast of southern China between the East China Sea, the South China Sea, southwestern Japan’s Nansei-shoto Islands, and the Pacific Ocean. The island is mostly mountainous in the east, but gradually transitions to gently sloping plains in the west. At the northern tip of the island is Taiwan’s capital city, Taipei, which appears as a large grayish patch surrounded by dark green. In this image, most of Taiwan’s eastern coast is dotted with low clouds, with low and high clouds off the coast in the Pacific Ocean. MODIS also detected three fires, which are marked in red. This true-color Terra MODIS was acquired December 15, 2002.

Images & Animations

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• Database Updated: May 22, 2013