Fires in Northern Territory, Australia

Fires in Northern Territory, Australia

6 June 2006

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Across Australia’s “Top End” scattered fires were burning on5 June 2006, when the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on NASA’s Aqua satellite passed overhead. Places where MODIS detected actively burning fires are marked in red.

AQUA
5 June  2006

(source: EarthObservatory)

These relatively early dry-season fires may be intentional burns set by people to reduce the risk of catastrophic fires later in the dryseason, when the savannas’ lush grasses become intensely dry and pose a severe firerisk. To read more about the role of fire in Australia’s tropical savannaecosystems, please visit the Website of the Tropical Savannas CRC.

This image is shown at MODIS’ maximum spatial resolution (level of detail), which is 250 meters perpixel.

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