Fires in Indochina

Fires inSouthAsia

22 March 2006

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Widespread agricultural (slash-and-burn) fires across northeastern India and Myanmar on the afternoon of20 March 2006, left a shroud of smoke hanging over the landscape the following morning. These images of the area were captured by the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on NASA’s Terra (21 March 2006) andAqua (20 March 2006) satellites. Fires have been burning throughout the region since February, as people prepare for spring planting. While these fires are not necessarily immediately hazardous, such widespread burning can have a strong impact on air quality and human health, natural resources, andclimate.

TERRA
21 March 2006
23:10 hrs UTC

AQUA
20 March 2006
5:20 hrs UTC

(source: EarthObservatory)

The high-resolution images provided above have a spatial resolution of 500 meters perpixel.

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