Fires in Southeast Asia

Credit: Jeff Schmaltz; MODIS team; NASA, Posted on: Thursday, 24 January 2008, 07:03 CST Download full size image

When the MODIS on NASA’s Aqua satellite passed over Southeast Asia on January 20, 2008, the sensor captured this image of the onset of the agricultural burning season in Cambodia. Places where MODIS detected actively burning fires are marked in red. Like other countries in Southeast Asia, Cambodia’s climate is dominated by the monsoon, with rainy, humid weather from June through November, and dry weather from November to May.

During the dry season, fires are widespread across the agricultural land in the heart of the country as farmers clear brush and the remains of the season’s harvest. Though it is not necessarily immediately hazardous, such large-scale burning can have a strong impact on weather, climate, human health, and natural resources.

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