Fires in South East Asia

Fires in Burma, Thailand, and Laos

17 March 2009

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Thick smoke hung over eastern Burma (Myanmar), Thailand, and Laos on 9 March 2009, when the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on NASA’s Aqua satellite passed over head and captured this image. Scores of active fires (red outlines) were detected. During the winter dry season, intentional fires for agriculture, brush clearing, and trash disposal are common in Southeast Asia. Intentional fires also get out of control, however, and some of these fires could be accidental forest fires. Although agricultural burning is not necessarily immediately hazardous, it can have a major impact on air quality and human health, climate, and natural resources.

AQUA
9 March 2009

The large image provided above is at MODIS’ maximum spatial resolution (level of detail) of 250 meters per pixel.

(source: earth observatory)

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