Start Date: End Date: Published Date Data Date
Data acquired January 19 - 19, 2003 2000 x 1450 702 KB - JPEG
Data acquired January 19 - 19, 2003 4000 x 2900 2 MB - JPEG
Data acquired January 19 - 19, 2003 8000 x 5800 8 MB - JPEG
On January 19, 2003, the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) sensors on the Aqua and Terra satellites captured a series of images of the fires in southeast Australia and the plume of smoke wafting thousands of kilometers out over the Pacific Ocean. This composite image is made up of four alternating Terra and Aqua images: Terra/Aqua/Terra/Aqua (left to right).
Terra is the morning satellite, so its images were acquired first. Since the satellites collect data from east to west, Terra acquired the third segment of the image, showing South Island of New Zealand first, and then a few hours later, the first segment, showing the coast of Australia. The Aqua images came next, again from east to west, so that the far right segment, showing North Island of New Zealand, came first, and the second segment, showing the Pacific Ocean off the coast of Australia, came last.
Over the ocean, you can see the direction of the sunglint change based on the different orbital geometry: in the Terra image, the sunglint runs northeast-southwest, for Aqua it runs northwest-southeast.
Jacques Descloitres, MODIS Rapid Response Team, NASA/GSFC
Published January 21, 2003 Data acquired January 19 - 19, 2003