Several large fires were burning in the Blue Mountains of New South Wales, Australia, on November 21, 2006. This image from Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) shows the active fire locations outlined in red. Thick smoke blows eastward over the Tasman Sea. Northern Sydney is mostly hidden by clouds at bottom center of the scene. According to news reports, winds of 100 kilometers per hour (62 mph) were causing fires to spread rapidly. Towns in the mountainous area could be threatened as the fires continued to spread.
The high-resolution image provided above has a spatial resolution of 250 meters per pixel. The MODIS Rapid Response System provides twice-daily images of the area at additional resolutions.
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NASA images courtesy the MODIS Rapid Response Team at NASA GSFC.
