May 16, 2004
On May 16, 2004, the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on NASA’s Aqua satellite captured this image of smoke hanging over the Pacific Ocean off the coast of Mexico. The smoke is coming from dozens of fires in the mountainous terrain along the coast; active fire detections made by MODIS are marked in orange. The fire season got underway in southern Mexico and Central America around mid-April, and intensity has risen and fallen since then.
References & Resources
Image by Earth Observatory staff, based on data from the MODIS Rapid Response Team, NASA-GSFC
