Madagascar

  • Credit

    Jacques Descloitres, MODIS Rapid Response Team, NASA/GSFC

The world´s fourth largest island, Madagascar, is featured in this Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) image taken by the Terra satellite on September 10, 2003. Several active fires, marked with red dots, burn in the central highlands, which are primarily covered with rice fields. The fires are probably controlled burns to clear farmland. The narrow strip of green along the east coast of the island is a rain forest. The west coast is lined with baobabs, a desert tree with a fat trunk, and thorny forest.

Metadata

  • Sensor

    Terra/MODIS

  • Visualization Date

    2003-09-10