GFMC: Bush and Forest Fires in Australia
Fires in Brazil
30 April 2003
Latest Satellite Image from Brazil:
Fires Surrounding XinguNational Park, Brazil
In central Brazil, the headwaters of the Xingu River have become a National Parkthat is also an indigenous peoples reserve, where several different tribes tryto maintain a traditional lifestyle in the shrinking Amazon Rainforest. Thistrue-color ModerateResolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) highlights the pressure on thereserve. Along the perimeter of the reserve, which appears as an intact patch ofsolid green forest, there are numerous rectangular clearings and rows of lineswhich show large-scale farming and ranching, which often competes with thesmaller farms maintained by some tribes. Fires such as those detected by MODISin this image from 28 April 2003, are often used to clear land or preparealready cleared land for new planting. These fires, marked in red, can get outof control and burn into the rainforest. At right in the image are theIlha do Bananal Wetlands along the Araguaia River. The Xingu flows northward tomeet up with Amazon, and the Araguaia flows northward to meet up with TocantinsRiver.
The high-resolution image provided above is 500 meters per pixel. The MODISRapid Response System provides this image at MODIS maximum spatial resolutionof 250meters.
