Fires in Southern Mexico

Fires in Southern Mexico

28April 2006

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In southern Mexico, numerous fires were burning in the area between Lake Cuitzeo in the state of Michoacán and the Sierra Madre del Sur in the state of Guerrero on 26 April 2006. The Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on NASA’s Terra satellite captured this image along with detections of actively burning fires (marked in red). Although MODIS cannot determine the cause of the fires it detects, this time of year is near the end of the region’s dry season, a time when people set agricultural fires to prepare for the upcoming growing season. However, accidental fires can also occur in the dry conditions.

TERRA
26 April 2006
12:50 hrs UTC

(source: EarthObservatory)

The high-resolution image provided above has a spatialresolution of 250 meters per pixel.

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