Fires in Southeast Asia

  • Credit

    Jacques Descloitres, MODIS Rapid Response Team, NASA/GSFC

Biomass burning in Southeast Asia is used for land clearing (deforestation) and to prepare land for agricultural purposes like grazing and farming. Each year in the late winter and early spring, the burning season reaches its peak, with hundreds of fires scattered across Myanmar, Thailand, Cambodia, and surrounding countries. This image of the region shows scores of fires (red dots) detected by the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on the Aqua satellite on March 2, 2003. The burning significantly influences air quality, sometimes thousands of kilometers away.

Metadata

  • Sensor

    Aqua/MODIS

  • Visualization Date

    2003-03-03