Fires and smoke across Southern Mexico

On March 1, 2003, the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on the Aqua satellite detected widespread fires (red dots) scattered across Mexico’s Yucatan Peninsula, Belize (to the southeast), Guatemala (to the southwest), El Salvador (center, west coast), Honduras (center, east coast), Nicaragua, and the northern part of Costa Rica (bottom right). At upper right is the Caribbean Sea, and at lower left is the Pacific Ocean.

Fires continued to flare up and die back over the next three months, and were captured in images by the Aqua and Terra MODIS sensors. Several times during the period, smoke stretched all the way across the Gulf of Mexico and into the United States. As the months passed, fires also sprang up in southern Mexico along the western coast.

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Jeff Schmaltz, MODIS Rapid Response Team, NASA/GSFC

Published June 3, 2003
Data acquired May 16 - 16, 2003

Source:

Aqua > MODIS

Topic:

Human Dimensions > Natural Hazards > Fires

Collection:

MODIS Rapid Response