Firefighters in Victoria, Australia, brought the state’s devastating bushfires under control one by one in February 2009. Among the remaining fires still listed as “going” in the February 25 fire status report from the Victoria Department of Sustainability and the Environment was the 158,000-hectare (390,425-acre) Killmore East-Murrundindi North fire.
This image of the fire was captured on February 25 by the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on NASA’s Aqua satellite. Places where the sensor detected actively burning fire are outlined in red. Hotspots along the eastern perimeter of the fire were among the places where the fire was proving difficult to control; the main fire breached a containment line near Dray Track on February 25. Southerly winds blew smoke northward over Lake Eildon at the time of this image, but a change in direction was expected in coming days.
The high-resolution image provided above is at MODIS’ maximum 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 and formats, including an infrared-enhanced version that highlights burned areas.
NASA image courtesy the MODIS Rapid Response Team. Caption by Rebecca Lindsey.
