NASA’s Terra satellite collected this natural-color image of Colombia (left) and Venezuela (right) with the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer, MODIS, instrument on January 17, 2016. The fires seem to be more active in around the Caracas and Valencia areas of Venezuela and the El Tuparro National Park area of Colombia, although fires are scattered throughout both countries. Actively burning areas, detected by MODIS’s thermal bands, are outlined in red. Each hot spot is an area where the thermal detectors on the MODIS instrument recognized temperatures higher than background. When accompanied by plumes of smoke, as in this image, such hot spots are diagnostic for fire.
NASA image courtesy Jeff Schmaltz LANCE/EOSDIS MODIS Rapid Response Team, GSFC. Caption by Lynn Jenner