Fires and smoke in Borneo

  • Credit

    Jacques Descloitres, MODIS Land Rapid Response Team, NASA/GSFC

Haze from fires is thick over the Indonesian island of Borneo. Scores of wildfires (red dots) were detected by the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on the Terra satellite on August 19, 2002. The region has recurring trouble with smoke and pollutants from wildfires, which are often the result of slash-and-burn agriculture. In addition to being a health hazard, the smoke can disrupt air traffic, as it did recently in Malaysia, on the northwest portion of Borneo.

Metadata

  • Sensor

    Terra/MODIS

  • Visualization Date

    2002-08-19