Fires burn across Burma
Firesburn across Burma; pollution levels rise in Thailand
20 March 2007
published by http://news.mongabay.com
Thailand — Fires are raging across Myanmar (Burma) causing “haze”pollution in neighboring Thailand, Laos, and southern China according to newsatellite images release by NASA.
The fires are set annually during the dry season for clearing brush and scrubfor agriculture. In especially dry years the fires often spread into adjacentforest areas.
Images captured by the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) onNASAs Aqua satellite show fire activity on March 19, 2007 across easternIndia, Myanmar, Thailand, Laos, and China. Fires are denoted with red dots whileforest areas are dark green and agricultural zones are light green to tan. TheNASA images reveal lots of smoke from the fires.
Myanmar has the fourth highest annual loss of forest cover, according to figuresreleased by the United Nations. Between 2000 and 2005, the country lost anaverage of 466,000 hectares of forest per year. While logging is heavy in partsof the country, most deforestation results from clearing for agriculture.
Haze from the fires has caused air quality to plummet in Thailand. Last yearhaze from widespread fires in Indonesia, especially on the islands of Borneo andSumatra, blanketed Thailand and Malaysia.
This image from the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on NASAs Aqua satellite shows fire activity on March 19, 2007, across eastern India, Myanmar, Thailand, Laos, and China. Places where MODIS detected actively burning fires are marked in red on the image. The darker green areas are generally more wooded areas or forests, while the paler green and tan areas are agricultural land. Smoke pools over low-lying areas of the hilly terrain in gray pockets. The green tops of rolling hills in Thailand emerge from a cloud of low-lying smoke. NASA image created by Jesse Allen, using data provided courtesy of the MODIS Rapid Response team. Caption text provided by NASA.
