Fires in Mexico and Central America

On May 31, 2004, numerous fires were burning in southern Mexico across a broad that spanned the Pacific to the Altantic Coast at the latitude of Lake Chapala.

On May 16, 2004, the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on NASA’s Aqua satellite captured this image of smoke hanging over the Pacific Ocean off the coast of Mexico. The smoke is coming from dozens of fires in the mountainous terrain along the coast; active fire detections made by MODIS are marked in orange. The fire season got underway in southern Mexico and Central America around mid-April, and intensity has risen and fallen since then.

Metadata

  • Sensor

    Aqua/MODIS

  • Start Date

    2004-05-16

  • Event Start Date

    2004-04-09

  • NH Image ID

    12133

  • NH Event ID

    10337

  • NH Posting Date

    2004-05-17