In South Africa, southeast of Cape Town, wildfires were burning out of control in several locations on February 1, 2006. According to news reports, fires were threatening homes and resort buildings in the region. Hot, dry, windy weather was predicted through the weekend. This image of the region was captured by the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on NASA’s Aqua satellite. Places where MODIS detected actively burning fires are outlined in red. A huge plume of smoke drifts out over the Atlantic Ocean.
The large version of the image has a spatial resolution of 250 meters per pixel. The MODIS Rapid Response Team provides daily images of this region.
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NASA image courtesy the MODIS Rapid Response Team, Goddard Space Flight Center
