On the Cape York Peninsula in Queensland, several large fires were blazing across the tropical savannas and grasslands on October 7, 2004. In this Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) image from the Terra satellite, active fire locations have been marked in red, and burned areas sprawl in dark brown against the paler terrain. Fire has been used by people for centuries in the tropical savannas to maintain preferred plants and grasses. Several large Aboriginal land holdings are distributed across this region, and these fires may have been set as part of traditional land management practices.
NASA image created by Jesse Allen, Earth Observatory, using data obtained from the Goddard Earth Sciences DAAC
