Fires and burn scars in Northern Australia - related image preview

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Fires and burn scars in Northern Australia - related image preview

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Fires and burn scars in Northern Australia

In the dry grasslands and savannas of eastern Northern Territory, Australia, bushfires spread rapidly in dry fuels during the transition from dry season to wet. This pair of images from Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on NASA’s Terra satellite shows how rapidly three large fires, marked with red dots, spread between October 10 and 11, 2004. The false color images provide a greater contrast between the land that has burned and the surrounding land, illustrating just how much ground the fires have covered. In the false color images, vegetation is light green, and the burned areas appear bright reddish-brown. Naturally bare soil or low vegetation is tan or pinkish tan. The blue jewel in the center of the scene is the salty Lake Woods.


Jacques Descloitres, MODIS Rapid Response Team, NASA/GSFC

Published October 12, 2004
Data acquired October 10, 2004

Source:
Terra > MODIS
Collections:
MODIS Rapid Response
Visible Earth