Forest Fires in Portugal

Less than a month after firefighters in Portugal contained dozens of devestating wildfires, new ones were burning on September 13, 2003, and are pictured in this Aqua MODIS image.

Between morning and afternoon, fires across Portugal and Spain appeared to flare up, producing much more smoke at the time of this image from the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on the Aqua satellite than during the earlier Terra MODIS image also acquired on August 4, 2003. Portugal has declared a national disaster due to the fires, which have been burning over a week and have killed 14 people.

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.

Metadata

  • Sensor

    Aqua/MODIS

  • Start Date

    2003-08-04

  • Event Start Date

    2003-07-27

  • NH Image ID

    11135

  • NH Event ID

    9203

  • NH Posting Date

    2003-08-06