This true-color Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) image from the Aqua satellite on Feb.9, 2003, shows scores of fires (red dots) scattered across south-central China (top) and Vietnam (bottom). The south-central Chinese provinces of Yunnan (which dominates the left and center parts of the image) and Guizhou (right center) are higher in elevation than the terrain to the north. Pollution from large cities to the north obscures the top part of the image, and is creeping southward into valleys at top left.
The high-resolution image provided above is 500 meters per pixel. The MODIS Rapid Response System provides this image at MODIS’ maximum spatial resolution of 250 meters.
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Image courtesy Jeff Schmaltz, MODIS Rapid Response Team, NASA GSFC
