NASA - National Aeronautics and Space Administration

Fires in Western Australia

Bushfires are burning in Western Australia and generating smoke that can be seen from NASA's Aqua satellite.

The Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) instrument aboard NASA's Aqua satellite has infrared capabilities that can detect heat from the various wildfires. The image was captured on Oct. 11, 2012 at 05:05 UTC (1:05 a.m. EDT). In the MODIS images, fires, or hot spots are color coded as red areas in imagery and smoke appears in light brown. Images are generated at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md.

Several fires were burning near Pumululu National Park in Western Australia. Purnululu National Park is located in the Kimberley region, covers almost 926 square miles (240,000 hectares) of a remote wilderness. The park includes the Bungle Bungle Range, sculptured rocks that have beehive-shaped karst sandstone.

Other fires were southeast of the Percival Lakes. One other fire seen on the NASA satellite image was burning in the Northern Territory, southeast of Lake MacDonald.

Image: Jeff Schmaltz, NASA Goddard MODIS Rapid Response Team; Caption: Rob Gutro, NASA Goddard Space Flight Center