NASA’s Aqua satellite collected this natural-color image of Colombia (left) and Venezuela (right) with the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer, MODIS, instrument on March 10, 2016.
The fires seem to be more active from Caracas and Valencia to Barquisimeto of northern Venezuela and in the northern Caribbean Coast region 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 Rob Gutro