image: NASA's Terra satellite collected this natural-color image with the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer, MODIS, instrument on Sept. 18, 2014. Actively burning areas, detected by MODIS's thermal bands, are outlined in red. Australia's Sentinel map corroborates these hotspots as well. These hotspots are either current bushfires or still smoldering areas of recent bushfires. Some spots are obviously currently burning since they emitting smoke, but others have just been tagged as hotspots by the satellite because the spot targeted is a higher temperature than the surrounding area. view more
Credit: Jeff Schmaltz LANCE/EOSDIS MODIS Rapid Response Team, GSFC, caption by Lynn Jenner