In Australia’s Northern Territory, dozens of large bushfires were churning out clouds of smoke on September 18, 2007, when the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on NASA’s Aqua satellite captured this image. Places where the sensor detected actively burning fires are marked in red. Although some of these fires may be accidental, others are probably intentional burns set by people to clear brush on grazing or other agricultural lands.

The large image provided above has a spatial resolution (level of detail) of 250 meters per pixel. The MODIS Rapid Response Team provides twice-daily images of the region in additional resolutions.

NASA image courtesy the MODIS Rapid Response Team, Goddard Space Flight Center