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NASA Sees Smoke From Fires in Australia’s Cape York Peninsula

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NASA

Jul 18, 2017
Image Article
satellite image of fires in Australia
Smoke from a large area of wildfires burning on Australia's Cape York Peninsula were spotted by NASA-NOAA's Suomi NPP satellite in space.

Smoke from a large area of wildfires burning on Australia’s Cape York Peninsula were spotted by NASA-NOAA’s Suomi NPP satellite in space.

This natural-color satellite image taken at 12:00 a.m. EDT (0400 UTC) on July 17, 2017, was collected by the Visible Infrared Imaging Radiometer Suite (VIIRS) instrument that flies aboard NASA-NOAA’s Suomi NPP satellite. The VIIRS instrument can detect the heat signatures from the fires, and actively burning areas are outlined in red in the image.

In the image, a large area of smoke blowing to the northwest appears as a light brown color from fires burning north of the Mungkan Kandhju National Park.

North is to the left in this image.

NASA image courtesy NASA MODIS Rapid Response Team. Caption: NASA/Goddard, Rob Gutro