This visible light/infrared composite image over Montana and Idaho wasacquired by the Moderate-resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer on Aug.23, 2000. The image shows the locations of actively burning wildfires (redpixels) and the thick shroud of smoke they produced (grey-blue pixels).There were 57 wildfires burning across both states. A single MODIS imagecan be up to 2,330 kilometers wide, allowing fire scientists to monitora much larger area than can be covered on the ground or by aircraft.Also, because MODIS has detectors that are sensitive to thermal infraredwavelengths of 3.70 and 3.90 micrometers, it can detect fires on thesurface even through heavy smoke.
For more information, see: NASA Satellite Data UsedOperationally to Help Combat Fires in the West
References & Resources
Image courtesy MODIS Science Team, Reto Stöckli, and Robert Simmon.
