Hundreds—possibly thousands—of active fire detections were made by the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on the Aqua satellite on August 31, 2003, across western Brazil (top right) and Bolivia (bottom left). These fires, marked with red dots, are billowing smoke which hangs over the terrain, nearly obscuring it in some places.
The high-resolution image provided above is 500 meters per pixel. The MODIS Rapid Response System provides this image at MODIS’ maximum spatial resolution of 250 meters.
Image courtesy Jeff Schmaltz, MODIS Rapid Response Team, NASA GSFC
