June 19, 2017
Fire is commonly used as tool for land management and hunting by people living on the Tiwi Islands in the Northern Territory of Australia. Roughly one-third of the savanna woodlands on these islands burn each year.
On June 19, 2017, the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on NASA’s Aqua satellite captured this image of smoke streaming from a large cluster of fires on Bathurst Island. Red outlines indicate areas with heat signatures indicative of active burning.
References & Resources
- Encyclopedia Britannica Bathurst Island. Accessed June 21, 2017.
- CSIRO (2017, January 30) Tiwi Carbon Study: managing fire for greenhouse gas abatement. Accessed June 21, 2017.
- Richards, A. (2012) Savanna burning, greenhouse gas emissions and indigenous livelihoods: Introducing the Tiwi Carbon Study. Austral Ecology, 37, 712-723.
- Tiwi Islands Council (2016) Fire management plan. Accessed June 21, 2017.
NASA image by Jeff Schmaltz, LANCE/EOSDIS Rapid Response. Caption by Adam Voiland.
