Fire and Smoke on Parana River

Credit: Jeff Schmaltz; MODIS team; NASA, Posted on: Thursday, 24 April 2008, 07:15 CDT Download full size image

Agricultural fires that were set to clear land for livestock grazing northwest of Buenos Aires, Argentina have been burning out of control for a week. This image shows the fires on April 16, 2008. Our featured image for today, captured by the MODIS on the Aqua satellite, shows the fires on April 18th - heavy smoke is still flowing southeast over the city and out over the Atlantic Ocean. Each red dot represents an active fire.

The smoke blown over the city has caused roads to close, disrupted air traffic, and sent people to the hospital with respiratory problems. By April 21, the smoke was blowing west, giving residents some respite.

Buenos Aires, Argentina's capital, is hard to see in this image because of the smoke, but it sits on the southwestern shore of the muddy Rio de la Plata Estuary. This estuary is formed by the combination of the Uruguay and Parana Rivers.

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