In the dry grasslands and savannas of eastern Northern Territory, Australia, bushfires spread rapidly in dry fuels during the transition from dry season to wet. This pair of images from the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on NASA’s Terra satellite shows how rapidly three large fires spread between October 10 and 11, 2004. Vegetation is light green, actively burning parts of the fires are marked in red, and the burned areas appear bright reddish-brown. Naturally bare soil or low vegetation is tan or pinkish tan. The blue jewel in the center of the scene is the salty Lake Woods. This high-resolution image provided above is the October 11 image at 1-kilometer spatial resolution. Additional resolutions for October 10 and October 11 are provided by the MODIS Rapid Response Team.
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Image courtesy Jacques Descloitres, MODIS Rapid Response Team, NASA-Goddard Space Flight Center
