At the foothills of the Himalaya Mountains, the Indus River Valley spreads in a fertile swath toward the Arabian Sea across the deserts of Pakistan (left). In this Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) image from April 25, 2004, actively burning fires have been detected by MODIS and marked in red. The widespread nature of the fires and the time of year suggest that these fires are being set intentionally for agricultural purposes. Though not necessarily hazardous, such large-scale burning can have a strong impact on weather, climate, human health, and natural resources. In this scene, smoke hangs over Pakistan and northwestern India.
The high-resolution image provided above is 500 meters per pixel. The MODIS Rapid Response System provides this image at
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Image courtesy Jeff Schmaltz, MODIS Rapid Response Team, NASA-GSFC
