Fires in North Western Australia

Credit: Jeff Schmaltz; MODIS team; NASA, Posted on: Wednesday, 25 July 2007, 06:57 CDT Download full size image

Rainfall in North Western Australia from December to March causes significant grass growth in this region. When the grasslands dry out from April to November, they become vulnerable to fire from both lightning and human activity. In this image of north west Australia, many fires are visible, some of them quite large.

Red dots mark the locations of the active fires and plumes of smoke are visible from many of them. Also visible in this image are green and blue phytoplankton blooms which combine with brownish sediment from the mouths of some of the rivers near the shoreline. This image was captured by the MODIS on the Aqua satellite on July 19, 2007.

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